NEI's Energy Markets Report - September 14

NEI's Energy Markets Report - September 14 - 18, 2009

The latest is up, below are two tidbits you may find useful:

Uranium prices continued their trend downward as prices fell to $42-$42.50/lb U3O8 last week. The EURATOM Supply Agency (pdf) “reported that, compared to 2007, total worldwide uranium production in 2008 rose more than 7% to 44,248 tU [metric tons of uranium]. Canada is still the world’s largest uranium producer (20% of world production) with a total of 9,000 tU. Contrary to 2007, Australia lost its position as the second largest producer and was replaced by Kazakhstan, which produced a total of 8,512 tU. For Kazakhstan, this represents nearly a 30% increase in production compared to 2007 (6,654 tU). Australia’s 2008 uranium production declined to 8,430 tU from 8,577 tU in 2007. After Kazakhstan, the second largest increase in uranium production came from Africa with a total of 7,926 tU (a 20% increase in comparison to 2007)” (UxConsulting, pages 1 and 3).

According to data from Ventyx Velocity Suite, 42,000 megawatts of capacity are currently under construction and expected to come online by the end of 2013. Of the 42,000 MW, 41% is natural gas capacity, 38% is coal capacity, 16% is wind capacity and 5% are other renewables and nuclear capacity. For the first eight months of 2009, the following capacity came online: 7,200 MW of natural gas, 4,400 MW of wind, 2,000 MW of coal, and 650 MW of other renewables (see page 5).

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How Nanomaterials Can Make Nuclear Reactors Safer and More Efficient

The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior communications advisor at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald.

From the batteries in our cell phones to the clothes on our backs, "nanomaterials" that are designed molecule by molecule are working their way into our economy and our lives. Now there’s some promising work on new materials for nuclear reactors.

Reactors are a tough environment. The sub atomic particles that sustain the chain reaction, neutrons, are great for splitting additional uranium atoms, but not all of them hit a uranium atom; some of them end up in various metal components of the reactor. The metal is usually a crystalline structure, meaning it is as orderly as a ladder or a sheet of graph paper, but the neutrons rearrange the atoms, leaving some infinitesimal voids in the structure and some areas of extra density. The components literally grow, getting longer and thicker. The phenomenon is well understood and designers compensate for it with a …

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A group that includes oil and gas companies in Pennsylvania released a study on Monday that argues that twenty years ago, planners underestimated the value of nuclear plants in the electricity market. According to the group, that means the state should now let the plants close.

Huh?

The question confronting the state now isn’t what the companies that owned the reactors at the time of de-regulation got or didn’t get. It’s not a question of whether they were profitable in the '80s, '90s and '00s. It’s about now. Business works by looking at the present and making projections about the future.

Is losing the nuclear plants what’s best for the state going forward?

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Lohud.com, the Gannett newspaper that covers the Lower Hudson Valley in New York, took a look around at the experience of towns where reactors have closed, because the Indian Point reactors in Buchanan are scheduled to be shut down under an agreement with Gov. Mario Cuomo.

From sea to shining sea, it was dismal. It wasn’t just the plant employees who were hurt. The losses of hundreds of jobs, tens of millions of dollars in payrolls and millions in property taxes depressed whole towns and surrounding areas. For example:

Vernon, Vermont, home to Vermont Yankee for more than 40 years, had to cut its municipal budget in half. The town closed its police department and let the county take over; the youth sports teams lost their volunteer coaches, and Vernon Elementary School lost th…

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