nuclear-news

Nuclear industry revving up campaign to win public support and public money

NRC will complete environmental review of Yucca project — chairman http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060013577 “……..’Right-sizing’ the NRC Burns is taking the agency’s reins at a critical time for both the NRC and the U.S. nuclear industry, which has embarked on a public campaign to tout the financial and climate benefits of reactors struggling in competitive power markets.

The industry is facing stiff competition from cheap gas, weak demand in the power markets, and new safety regulations after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan. While five new reactors are under construction and the NRC staff today recommended that another project move forward at DTE Energy Co.’s Fermi nuclear plant in southeastern Michigan, the industry has seen a recent spate of plant closures in California, Wisconsin, Florida and Vermont.

Touching on those closures, a number of executives from nuclear giants Exelon Corp. and FirstEnergy Corp. spoke at the conference about the need for market fixes to bolster struggling reactors.

Donald Moul, vice president of commodity operations for FirstEnergy Solutions, said at least 40,000 megawatts of baseload power — mostly older coal plants but also reactors — could be forced to prematurely retire in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, and grid operators and U.S. EPA need to do more to credit reactors under its Clean Power Plan. Moul said nuclear plants are facing a “lack of revenue certainty,” and their closure will only make it more difficult for states to comply with the Obama administration’s climate goals.

David Brown, senior vice president of government affairs for Exelon, the nation’s largest operator of commercial reactors, said there are no “silver bullets,” but market reforms in the PJM Interconnection are a “big start.” On the state level, Brown said, Illinois has developed a handful of options, and a low-carbon energy standard is most likely to gain traction.

“A lot of people thought [EPA’s Clean Power Plan] would be a real savior for the industry, but … that rulemaking was off the mark,” Brown said.

Burns signaled that the NRC in coming weeks and months intends to slim down to match a declining lot of license applications.

NRC senior staff, he said, is focused on “right-sizing” the agency — streamlining operations, making more timely decisions and establishing clearer agencywide priorities through a program dubbed “Project AIM 2020” that began last year.

NRC commissioners will be briefed on staff’s recommendations for slimming the agency tomorrow, and the proposal will be made public soon, he added.

Burns also noted that the agency’s fiscal 2016 budget proposal reflects a reduction of 140 full-time workers and of $27.3 million from the prior year’s request. Burns said the agency’s fiscal 2015 fee rule — expected in coming months — will also likely reflect a dip in licensee fees.

“No organization can remain static,” Burns said.

Twitter: @HMNorthey | Email: hnorthey@eenews.net

February 20, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA