“Sleepy” hasn’t been the right word for the electric utility industry in many years, but the business has felt particularly strong zaps lately. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami rewrote the future of nuclear power, which had been in the midst of a renaissance. The Environmental Protection Agency wants to impose the most stringent emissions rules the industry has ever faced. And the rapid development of shale gas in the U.S. could revolutionize electrical generation. These are tense times for any utility — especially one like Southern Co., which is building a major new nuclear power plant near Augusta, Ga., and generates most of its electricity by burning coal. This article is a linkout find the full copy at http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/09/news/companies/southern_tom_fanning_leadership.fortune/
Nuclear
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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 →
For 25 days, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant was staffed round the clock by 850 craft workers in addition to its usual staff as they replaced about a third of the plant’s fuel assemblies.
Entergy was refueling the plant for the twenty-ninth time since it was built in 1972, a process that was completed on November 3. Meanwhile, a court case brought by Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin against the plant remains pending in court. If the state wind the case, the nuclear plant will be shut down again by March 2012. Keep reading →
Our @Vermont_Yankee #nuclear plant is back in service following another successful refueling: http://ow.ly/7idhy #vty
By Shifra MincerOur @Vermont_Yankee #nuclear plant is back in service following another successful refueling: http://ow.ly/7idhy #vty @Entergy
Kyushu Electric said Genkai No. 4 reactor started generating power at 3 p.m. It’s the 1st reactor restarted since Fukushima crisis started.
By Shifra MincerKyushu Electric said Genkai No. 4 reactor started generating power at 3 p.m. It’s the 1st reactor restarted since Fukushima crisis started. @DailyYomiuri
Review for EU confirms that EDF Energy’s nuclear fleet is robust and safe even under extreme conditions
By Peter GardettReview for EU confirms that EDF Energy’s nuclear fleet is robust and safe even under extreme conditions http://bit.ly/vf0Pu7 edfenergycomms
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 →
Increasing numbers of nuclear reactors are being kept off-line in Japan as local governments respond to public fears about safety in the wake of the Fukushima meltdowns.
Poten and Partners told a conference session of the US Association of Energy Economists October 10 that all but 10 of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors are now off-line. Only 16 of those were affected by the March earthquake and tsunami, he said. Keep reading →
Though it is already tightly regulated, the nuclear industry might also need conduct rules.
In this video, Areva’s Corporate Business Ethics Advisor, Olivier Loubiere explains the French energy company’s “unprecedented” decision to “self-regulate” and adopt a code of conduct, what Loubiere calls in this video “a set of voluntary best practices.” Keep reading →
When a 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook the Washington DC and Virgina regions on August 23, the North Anna nuclear plant automatically shut down.
Over a month later the plant is still idle, waiting for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission green light to restart. But when an NRC inspection team, dispatched in early September, found that 25 of the plant’s 27 steel dry cask storage containers had moved several inches during the quake, that restart date may have been pushed off for much longer than initially expected. Keep reading →
