NEI Nuclear Notes

FOX Architects, which designed NEI’s offices here in Washington DC, has won the Pinnacle Award from the International Interior Design Association . It’s in the category for interior fit-outs of between 20,000 and 100,000 square feet. Of course, this has everything to do with the quality of work done by the architect and its contractors, not the nature of nuclear energy Or does it? When NEI came to the end of its 20 year lease on I Street, it found itself in a revived and newly vibrant city. F Street is closer to Capitol Hill than I Street, but for many years F Street was an eyesore, almost a generic representative of a decaying downtown. In the last 10 years, as DC finally shook off the impact of suburbanization, the virtues of city living became manifest to an affluent, and younger, cohort. Consequently, DC went on a building binge, with both office buildings and residential complexes rapidly changing the skyline. But it remains a distinctively short skyline due to building he...

The following post was provided by Christina Baworowsky for  NEI’s Powered by Our People promotion . Powered by Our People is part of the  Future of Energy  campaign that  NEI launched earlier this year . This promotion aims to communicate innovation in our nation’s nuclear energy industry in the voices of the people working within it.  Christina is NEI’s federal programs coordinator. Though she is new to NEI, Christina has a long history of involvement with nuclear energy, from learning about it from her uncle as a child to writing her senior thesis on it. For more on this promotion, take a look at the  featured content  on our website and follow the  #futureofenergy  tag across our digital channels.  Christina Baworowsky When people ask me how I wound up working in governmental affairs at a nuclear energy trade association at the age of 22, they are usually surprised when I say it is because I wrote my thesis on nuclear ...

The following post was submitted by William Skaff, NEI's director of policy analysis. Yesterday, the EPA issued a  final rule  implementing Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act for existing facilities. NEI is currently reviewing the rule to determine how closely it conforms to principles of sound environmental regulation.  In this post, Skaff  lays out the facts about water use at power plants in relation to 316(b).  Cooling Towers Consume Twice as Much Water Cooling towers consume twice as much water as once-through cooling systems. Climate change modeling predicts freshwater constraints across the country. Thus, consuming twice as much aquatic life habitat will not be protective of fish populations going forward. Clearly, the one-size-fits-all approach of a nationwide cooling-tower mandate is not environmentally responsible. Site-Specific Approach to Fish Protection Technologies is Most Effective There are 3,153 species of fish in the waters of...

Scott Peterson The following is a guest post by Scott Peterson, NEI's Senior Vice President of Communications. The red clay landscape of rural Georgia may seem like an unlikely setting for technological innovation in the nuclear energy industry. The expansion of Plant Vogtle is the largest construction project in the state’s history. The project is midway through building two state-of-the-art reactors that will power 500,000 homes and businesses. Nearby, Mark Verbeck , a Navy veteran and second-generation industry leader, is training the men and women who will operate the massive electricity-producing machines. “I’m one of 5,000 workers building the future of nuclear energy,” says Verbeck. “Nuclear plant construction is creating jobs and growing local economies around the world.” As Georgia Power ’s manager for reactor operators training at full-scale, digital simulators, Verbeck oversees the development of a next generation workforce in the nuclear industry. New em...

Marv Fertel The following is a guest post from NEI’s President and CEO, Marv Fertel. By its very nature, diversity is an attribute that we desire.  Regardless of whether it’s the diversity of ideas, the colleagues with whom we work, or the options in any given strategy, diversity should be championed. On the concept of diversity, most people ”get it,” but few recognize when we are on a path to lose it. Such is the case in the electric sector. Many energy leaders from the Department of Energy, state public utility commissioners and other regulators only recently have begun to recognize the potential erosion of diversity in our electric supply system. This is due to the closure of base load power plants, including significant coal-fired production. Four nuclear reactors have shut down in the past year and others are at risk in competitive markets that have become skewed by layers of policy decisions.  Maintaining diversity of supply is a theme of a new NEI campa...

Richard Myers The following post was submitted by Richard Myers, NEI’s vice president of policy development, planning and supplier programs. It addresses the bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with Taiwan submitted to Congress for review on Jan. 7. The agreement was signed by the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office. The agreement will be reviewed by Congress for 90 days of continuous session before entering into force.  The U.S. nuclear energy industry thanks the Obama Administration for concluding negotiation of an agreement to continue nuclear energy cooperation between the United States and Taiwan. The industry is eager for the renewal of the agreement for cooperation with this longstanding strategic partner. U.S. exports of nuclear technology, equipment and services to Taiwan support thousands of U.S. jobs. Two General Electric nuclear energy facilities are under construction in Taiwan at Lungmen, and other U.S. c...

Earlier this year, IndyCar driver Simona De Silvestro sat down in the NEI studio to discuss her involvement with the Nuclear Clean Air Energy campaign. She emphasized the passion, innovation and results-oriented approach found in both racing and the nuclear energy industry. De Silvestro also spoke about the importance of promoting STEM education and nuclear energy to students around the country. Watch the video below and learn why nuclear and IndyCar racing pair together so well:

Jim Asselstine The following is a guest post submitted by Scott Peterson, NEI's senior vice president of communications . SINGAPORE-- Jim Asselstine has an unparalleled pedigree to assess the nuclear energy industry. He has analyzed the industry for the past 23 years at Lehman Brothers and Barclays , was a Nuclear Regulatory Commission commissioner and punched his policy credential as a congressional staffer. “My own personal view is that we should try to keep nuclear power, as the only zero-carbon, large-scale baseload generating source at about its current level of 19 or 20 percent of U.S. [electric] generation,” Asselstine said during a clear-eyed assessment of America’s nuclear energy industry. He was speaking at the World Nuclear Fuel Conference , a global symposium in Singapore sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute and World Nuclear Association . Assuming modest electricity demand growth and with the closure of existing reactors after 60 years of production,...

Since I came to the nuclear industry five years ago, I have heard my fair share of nuclear energy-related jokes (I used to keep a running tally to see how many I’d hear in a day!). Inspired by a joke we saw by NRC Commissioner Kristine Svinicki, posted in today’s Environment & Energy Daily , we decided we’d launch a friendly Facebook contest to see who could tell the best joke. Here are the contest’s terms: To enter and/or vote on the submissions, please visit NEI’s Facebook page . While there, don’t forget to ‘like’ us. We know there is a lot of great hidden talent out there (as proven in our haiku contest from April ), so we are eager to see what people submit this time! And, since I know you are waiting on the edge of your seat to hear Commissioner Svinicki’s joke, here’s the passage from the article that made us chuckle: "A neutron walks into a bar, and the bartender says, 'What'll you have?'" the 45-year-old Nuclear Regulatory Commission ...

The following statement concerning the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is from the Nuclear Energy Institute ’s president and chief executive officer, Marvin Fertel : “Safe performance of nuclear energy facilities and the NRC’s credibility are the two most important factors for policymaker and public confidence in nuclear energy. As such, the industry is concerned with anything that threatens the credibility of either. We are confident that Congress and the White House will take the steps necessary to ensure that the NRC is an efficient, effective regulator that provides oversight of commercial nuclear technology. “The issue that is of most concern is the question of a chilled working environment at the agency, including the possibility of staff intimidation and harassment, at a time when the senior management and staff are working on critical licensing activities and post-Fukushima safety recommendations. The industry takes safety culture issues seriously and we expect the sa...

Sometimes, when you see an attack on the nuclear energy industry, it may have some grain of truth in that a facility did not implement something perfectly or a license application is missing some data. But when you don’t like something – as in the case of anti-nuclear campaigners – then any perceived flaw proves the industry negligent. So that’s one thing. But some arguments just seem willfully naïve – about how the industry works, how NEI works, the NRC, in the hopes that information that is fairly benign is instead shocking evidence of malicious intent. That brings us to the Union of Concerned Scientists. The group says it’s nominally in favor of nuclear energy – as long as the industry passes a long litmus test devised by UCS to prove its worth. This allows UCS to nibble at the edges in the hopes that enough holes will cause the edifice of the nuclear energy industry to crumble into dust. The blatancy of the approach is actually rather amusing. Take for example a blog post...

At a press conference at NEI, Alex Flint, senior vice president for government affairs at NEI, discussed some priorities for the upcoming Congress. The question-and-answer session with reporters focused on several key issues affecting the nuclear energy industry: a clean energy standard, DOE loan guarantees, EPA water regulations, the Nuclear Waste Fund fee and a federal corporation for managing used nuclear fuel. A recurring theme was that nuclear energy could be an area for bipartisan cooperation on energy legislation in the new Congress. Original reporting from NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview follows:  Nuclear energy might hold the key to a compromise on energy legislation in the next session of Congress, an NEI executive told reporters during a briefing on the impact of the midterm elections on the nuclear energy industry. “Nuclear energy is at the center of the debate about energy policy,” said Alex Flint. “We view it as the middle ground on which both parties can compromise...

Last night, our CEO Marv Fertel discussed a number of nuclear topics with Clean Skies TV's Tyler Suiters . Several of the topics mentioned include loan guarantees, a Clean Energy Deployment Administration , and decreasing from 10 years to 6 years the time it takes to get a plant online through regulatory efficiencies. Plus, he hints at which nuclear station he thinks will be the first one built by 2016 under the NRC’s new regulatory process. A portion of Marv’s segment will be broadcast on Clean Skies Sunday this Sunday on WJLA, Channel 7 at 9:30 a.m.   As well, NEI’s Communications VP, Scott Peterson, joined Clean Skies TV over the past weekend to “discuss Energy Secretary Steven Chu's new Blue Ribbon Panel and how it could affect the NRC and nuclear power.” Hope you enjoy!

Despite our pre-Thanksgiving prep-for-bloat kind of lethargic mood, we thought we point you to a couple of interesting videos. Here's one from the BBC about the disassembly of the Sellafield Cumbrian plant. This isn't a nuclear power plant, but a plant at which plutonium was produced for bombs. We can't think of a nicer plant to go to pieces. Note: If you're not British, you'll have to listen quite closely to decommissioning manager Euan Hutton, who narrates, because he frequently disappears into a thicket of accent. Worth watching more than once to catch all he has to say. --- Well, all right, we can rouse ourselves from thoughts of gobblers and bog fruit to express dismay about Jim Riccio's sourpuss ding on NEI central. Of all people, he knows that advocacy organizations make the most positive case possible for the object of their advocacy and he also knows that credibility craters if NEI or Greenpeace or any other such entity spins facts into lies or hi...

NEI has been supportive of the US-India nuclear trade agreement and worked to help it along its winding trail through the international and national thickets where it could. The Indians have noticed this, as this story from NDTV demonstrates: Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy arm of US nuclear energy industry, has welcomed the Congressional ratification of the historic US India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement and said that it has the potential to strengthen the American economy. "The agreement holds the potential to strengthen the US economy while fostering within India increased use of nuclear energy to cleanly provide the reliable electricity that is so vital in modern society," said Frank Bowman, president and chief executive of the Nuclear Energy Institute. ...  [NEI] was part of the US nuclear industry delegation, which visited India last year to have a preliminary round of talks with the Indian Government officials and also the private...

In July 2007, NEI launched its new website with the help of Siteworx who provided "deep expertise in user experience, application development and interactive marketing." Here's information from the PRWeb on the rewarding effort : Siteworx has been awarded 2007 Interactive Media Awards for the redesign of the Regina Lewis, http://www.ReginaLewis.com , and Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), http://www.nei.org , websites. Specifically, both sites were judged an "Outstanding Achievement" for their design, usability, innovative technical features and standards compliance. The Regina Lewis site earned the honor in the Lifestyle Category and the NEI site in the Utilities Category . "Our objectives were to develop for each a unique, relevant, user-centered design aesthetic, along with a scalable technology infrastructure that will support their needs over the long haul. Siteworx is proud to share these impressive awards with Regina Lewis and the Nuclear Energy Ins...

Industry executives described the prudent steps energy companies are taking as they consider builidng new nuclear plants in the United States in a briefing for Wall Street analysts today. NEI's press release follows: Nuclear Energy Expansion Will Proceed Cautiously Over Next Decade, Wall Street Analysts Told NEW YORK, Feb. 21, 2008—Construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States will ramp up slowly over the next decade as project sponsors exercise caution to effectively manage business risks, nuclear energy industry leaders told Wall Street financial analysts here today. The industry’s expectations are that four to eight new nuclear plants will be generating electricity by 2016 or so, with a second wave of new power plants under construction as the first group commences commercial operation, the Nuclear Energy Institute’s president and chief executive officer, Frank L. (Skip) Bowman said during a briefing attended by more than 75 analysts. “The exact number will, of c...

In the January/February 2008 edition of Extra, Karl Grossman at Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting wrote a disingenuous, inaccurate piece against nuclear energy . The whole premise of his article is that the mainstream media doesn't question the nuclear advocates in the industry and government. We know this is false, though, as evidenced by AP's one-sided piece on the nuclear industry's water issues . Lifecycle Emissions Grossman's first claim begins with how the biased media doesn't question NEI's clean air ads. What is left unmentioned by the NEI, the Times and other mainstream media making this claim is that the overall “nuclear cycle”—which includes uranium mining and milling, enrichment, fuel fabrication and disposal of radioactive waste—has significant greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. According to his source, there are: independent studies that document in detail the extent to which the entire nuclear cycle generates greenhous...

Over the past several months, I'm sure many of you have noticed that posting on the blog has become, well, a little more "bursty" than it had been historically. The reasons for that are pretty simple, as I've been deeply involved in the redesign of NEI's public Web site for a number of months now. It's been an arduous process at times, but now the we're looking to launch the brand new site at the end of July. While it may be a number of weeks before the site goes live, I'm happy to give our readers a sneak peak of what's coming next. Again, click the image in order to enlarge it: As you can see, the new site is quite an upgrade over the current one when it comes to design. But the changes didn't end there, as we re-wrote mounds of content, and reorganized hosts of links into a structure that was easier to understand and a whiz to navigate. As we get closer to the actual launch date, I'll be sharing more details of what's to come ne...