Resurgence in American Nuclear Industry To Start in Ga., Says Energy Chief

In case you missed the tweets from @SouthernCompany or @EnergyPressSec yesterday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu  toured the site where two new reactors are being built at Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro, Ga. Reconfirming his commitment to nuclear energy, the Nobel Laureate spoke to the more than 500 workers already on site on the need to build new nuclear plants to create jobs for American workers and boost U.S. competitiveness.

“In his State of the Union address, President Obama outlined a blueprint for an American economy that is built to last and develops every available source of American energy,” said Secretary Chu. “Nuclear power is an important part of that blueprint. The work being done in Georgia and at research organizations like Oak Ridge National Laboratory is helping restore American leadership in the global race for the nuclear energy jobs of tomorrow.”

Just how many new jobs is Secretary Chu talking about? Business Week says:

About 1,700 workers are already on the job site and plant managers say that number will grow to nearly 5,000 at the peak of construction. Once the completed units go online, they will employ about 800 permanent workers.

Those numbers only capture the direct jobs from the project, but indirectly, Business Week explains that constructing the two new reactors means a lot more people coming to the area, consuming more goods and services at local businesses. Take, for example, Allen DeLaigle:

"Plant Vogtle has pretty well saved Burke County," said Allen DeLaigle, who owns and manages an RV park with his twin brother about 4 miles from the nuclear plant.

Since site preparation ramped up for the new units, DeLaigle's park has filled about 90 of its 151 spaces with RVs and campers owned by workers coming in from other states such as Alabama and Mississippi, West Virginia and Ohio.

Or Robin Baxley:

Robin Baxley, owner of a Waynesboro office supply store, added two new employees to keep up with deliveries of pens, paper, marker boards and thumb drives to the modular offices set up on the construction site. Her business also supplied the cubicles, desks and file cabinets for many of those temporary offices

"They helped us make it through the economic downturn," Baxley said. "Office furniture is not the first thing people buy when they can hardly make payroll."

The project also will create approximately 35,000 jobs for suppliers and manufacturers, which is why groups like the National Association of Manufacturers wholeheartedly support the project:

Manufacturers use one-third of the energy consumed in the Unites States, so building new reliable sources of energy is essential to our competitiveness. Building new nuclear power plants also means the creation of quality jobs for Americans at a time when we need them the most. The Vogtle plant alone will create 5,000 new jobs and will have a tremendous positive impact for the many jobs in the nuclear energy supply chain. 

The amount of jobs this project is creating has not gone unnoticed by the public. In fact, on the day of the announcement, I took a phone call from a member of the public asking where he could find information online to apply for a job. I also saw comments like this one on Twitter:

If the overall goal is to create new jobs, make America more competitive and invest in an emission-free, domestic energy source, then this is the way to do it, said Secretary Chu on the tour:

“America has the opportunity to lead the world in clean energy technologies and to provide a foundation for our future prosperity. What you are doing here at Vogtle will help us compete in the global clean energy race and provide domestic, clean power to U.S. homes.”

During his visit to the site, Secretary Chu announced a funding opportunity of up to $10 million for research and development toward advanced nuclear reactor and fuel cycle technologies and also announced that the agency will be putting together an internal working group—chaired by Peter Lyons—to recommend a nuclear waste strategy to the secretary by the summer.

Continuing with his busy week, today the secretary testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee on the agency’s fiscal year 2013 budget request. (See the committee’s archived webcast and Secretary Chu’s testimony for more information.)

Photo: Southern Co.’s Tom Fanning and Energy Secretary Steven Chu on a tour of the Plant Vogtle site. Photo courtesy of Southern Co.

In Age of Austerity, France Stays with Nuclear Power

First, an additional tidbit on our coverage of IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2011, where we learned that the rumors of nuclear energy’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Just consider this chart from page two of the “Key Graphs” part of the report. 

As you can see, the IEA sees nuclear’s future more in line with the measured growth of renewables rather than coal or oil’s steady decline.

In its report, the IEA imagines a world without (or actually, with very little) nuclear power. It’s called the “Low Nuclear Case” scenario. And surprise! It’s not the utopia some would have you believe.

The net result would be to put additional upward pressure on energy prices, raise additional concerns about energy security and make it harder and more expensive to combat climate change.

Of course, it’s a projection, so it has to be taken with a grain of salt. But the data coming in from countries that have scaled back their nuclear energy plans show that the IEA is onto something.

First, there’s Germany. As we’ve covered before, their nuclear moratorium has led to higher cost electricity, lost jobs and more emissions.

There’s some evidence that Japan’s shutdown of most of its reactors may be having a negative effect on Japan’s export-based economy. [Financial Times, subscript req’d. “Japan restarts first nuclear reactor since disaster,” Nov. 1, 2011.]

Concerns about stable supply of electricity are prompting some [Japanese] companies to shift production overseas. A rise in fuel costs for utilities to make up for a lack of nuclear power, leading to bigger electricity bills for consumers, is another factor undermining the economy.

A full nuclear shutdown would have a huge annual bill as Japan turns to more expensive fossil fuels.  

Using gas and oil to make up for the loss of all nuclear power reactors will cost more than 3,000 bn yen ($38bn) a year, based on imported fuel prices and utilisation rates in 2009, the government has estimated.

Another country has considered the pros and cons of nuclear power, but when asked about shutting down its reactors replied with an emphatic “Non, merci!”

The French government's fiscal belt-tightening effort won't touch the country's ambitious nuclear energy program, France's energy minister said Wednesday, as he also dismissed any need for France to reduce its nuclear dependency...French energy and industry minister Eric Besson said Flamanville, the follow-up Penly reactor and other French nuclear investments won't be affected "at all" by the country's austerity package.

"The plan is designed to reduce deficits, yet growth engines aren't touched, budgets for the future haven't been dented," Mr. Besson said two days after the government unveiled a €7 billion austerity package.

In fact, it turns out nuclear energy can be especially helpful in times of austerity. First nuclear energy creates jobs—not only in the industry itself—but in wholly unrelated fields.

Mr. [Henri] Proglio [chief executive of Electricité de France] said that 400,000 jobs, direct and indirect, in the nuclear industry would be threatened [if France shut down its reactors] as well as another 100,000 future jobs dependent on nuclear exports. Another 500,000 jobs in energy-intensive sectors like aluminum production could be outsourced to other countries as a result of higher energy costs, he predicted.

Lower cost electricity (generated thanks to nuclear energy) also leaves ratepayers/consumers with more money in their pockets, too. Money they can spend on other goods and services, spreading the wealth.

The French pay, on average, about 30 percent less for their electricity than their neighbors do, he said, ‘‘thanks to our nuclear establishment and hydropower.’’

Of course there is a way out. Something akin to the IEA’s Low Nuclear Case: build more fossil fuel plants.

Mr. Proglio told the paper that it was his ‘‘conviction’’ that France…would need to invest somewhere in the vicinity of $544 billion to build new fossil fuel power plants to replace lost generating capacity if it shut down its reactors.

That, he said, would have to be financed by a doubling of the price of electricity and would bring a 50 percent increase in France’s greenhouse gas emissions.

A doubling of electricity prices, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost and (lest we forget!) higher emissions. Sounds like the IEA is onto something in its projections of a world without nuclear power. And sounds like France has the right idea to not scale back nuclear energy during tough times. Something to keep in mind as more nations, including our own, face budget cuts.