Nuclear Energy Institute

US Power Prices Will Continue to Increase

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Power prices are too low. That’s what utility executives believe. They need prices to increase for their generators to return healthy earnings. Otherwise, they will have to retire plants and exit the market.

Dominion Resources decided not to wait. They recently announced plans to retire their Wisconsin-based Kewaunee Nuclear Power Station 21 years early. Dominion concluded they would not be able to achieve any earnings for their 556-megawatt unit, they might even lose money and they could not find anyone to buy it. They had no choice but to shutter and decommission Kewaunee. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 6, 2012 at 8:30 AM

The Wind Doesn’t Need an Extra Generator

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One criticism of wind and solar power is their lack of reliability. Both depend on the weather for energy production and any change in weather affects their ability to produce electricity. In many regions, wind has the added liability of producing power when it is least needed. To solve this challenge, some suggest pairing standby generators with wind and solar farms so continuous power can be produced. Under this scheme, proponents argue that standby generators should be capable of varying its output to assure continuous energy production.

Varying output is called load following or turn down. The physical objective is to throttle back power generation to response to changing demands. The financial objective is to turn down without increasing fuel consumption on a unit basis. The environmental objective is to minimize air pollution, specifically carbon. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 30, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Nuclear Operators Extend Life of Existing Plants

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Nuclear plant operators around the world are helping to meet higher demand for electricity by extending the operating lives of plants rather than embarking on the costly and time-consuming process of building new ones, according to a new report.

The cost of operating a Plant Life Extension (PLEX) program is considerably lower than the capital cost of building a new plant, and so is being widely adopted as a way to meet power demand, which is expected to show a compound annual growth rate of 4 percent worldwide between 2012 and 2020, said the report from the U.K.-based business-intelligence group GlobalData. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 26, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Web Resources For The Fukushima Anniversary

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Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) staffs watch monitors of real time image of reactor buildings of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant at the emergency operation center of the stricken TEPCO nuclear power plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan on February 28, 2012. TEPCO opened up its stricken Fukushima plant to foreign journalists for the third time, ahead of the anniversary of the March 11 disasters, and insisted the crippled complex was in cold shutdown.

Over the past few weeks, Breaking Energy has received and discovered literally dozens of leads to opinions, content, infographics and other kinds of internet content related to the anniversary of the Fukushima disaster. As a service to our community as they seek out more information, we wanted to highlight the best of what we’ve seen on the internet related to the Fukushima anniversary. This is an evolving list, and comments on other resources are welcome. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 9, 2012 at 2:00 PM

New Nuclear Plants Under Cost, Deadline Scrutiny

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The first new nuclear plants to be licensed in the US since 1978 will be under a financial and operational microscope as investors, regulators and customers watch for any delay that could add to costs or impact the planned start date.

The nuclear energy industry’s leadership gathered in New York City today for a briefing of financial analysts, but their timing had extra weight as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission met in the afternoon and approved Southern Company’s Vogtle plant project in Georgia in a four to one vote as the first new build nuclear facility in the US in more than 30 years. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 9, 2012 at 1:20 PM

Nuclear Power In 2012: Challenge Of Complacency

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US nuclear plant operations, while still very good, are trending in the wrong direction, says Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko, and complacency from years of safe operations, combined with overload from backlogged and new safety requirements, could mean trouble ahead in 2012.

Speaking to nuclear CEOs at their annual Institute of Nuclear Power Operations meeting in November, Jaczko fingered what he fears are declining performance trends. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 2, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Nuclear’s Annus Horribilis

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For the nuclear industry, 2011 was Biblical.

Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Tornadoes. Floods. Fires. 2011 had everything but plagues of locusts. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 30, 2011 at 2:30 PM

Beyond Fukushima: Benefits Of Nuclear Remain Clear

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The US nuclear industry is not dodging the big question; what is next for nuclear power after the Fukushima accident in Japan earlier this year?

The Nuclear Energy Institute’s Leslie Kass beat Breaking Energy to the subject in this video interview, mentioning Fukushima as she acknowledged it has been a busy year for the nuclear industry. While the accident has created challenges for operators in the US beyond providing assistance to the impacted site, it has also given the industry what Kass called “a great platform to communicate.” Keep reading →

 /  Published November 9, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Energy CEOs Urge Court To End Nuclear Waste Fee

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A Department of Energy fee that costs nuclear power utilities some $750 million a year should be suspended because a nuclear-waste program the fee is designed to pay for does not exist, opponents said in a new court filing.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the Nuclear Energy Institute, a policy organization for the industry, urged a Washington DC appeals court to order the DOE to stop collecting the fee for the federally mandated Nuclear Waste Fund which grows by about $1 billion a year and is expected to total $28.3 billion by the end of fiscal 2012. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 25, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Southern Company In ‘Final Stages’ For New Nuke Construction

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If approved, this will the US’ first new nuclear reactor not only since the Fukushima blowout but also since the Three Mile meltdown in 1979.

And Southern Company has been waiting since March 2008, when it first submitted an application for a combined operating license (COL) to build two new reactors–Vogtle Units 3 and 4–at its Vogtle nuclear plant, located near Waynesboro, Georgia. The COL would allow Southern Company to both construct and move directly into operating the reactors. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 28, 2011 at 11:45 AM
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