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.

The Sun Rises on New Nuclear

Southern Co. has launched a new print advertising campaign to highlight some of the economic benefits the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant brings to the Georgia area.

I particularly like the image--the sun rising on the construction site for Vogtle units 3 and 4. It sheds a hopeful light on a topic that I discussed in a blog post earlier this week: Is the Future Outlook for Nuclear Energy Bright?

For the latest on construction at the site, see Southern Company’s website.

America Technology Gets Ready to Go Big Again with New Nuclear Projects

I hear it all the time lately.

“What’s happening to American technology? Are we losing our edge?”

No more space shuttle. Steve Jobs logging off for good. The next generation space telescope on the chopping block.

So, it was with no small satisfaction last week that I listened into an NRC hearing on combined construction and operating license for new reactors at the V.C. Summer site in South Carolina. Perhaps the best bit was Stephen Byrne, executive vice president of South Carolina Electricity and Gas, explaining why a utility executive would opt to build a new nuclear power plant.

“We choose nuclear over other energy alternatives for four main reasons. First, the need for baseload power. The new units will help meet state regulatory reserve margin requirements. Second, cost. Nuclear is competitive with other baseload options when evaluated over its 40-year design life. Third is fuel diversity, adding units 2 and 3 [at V.C. Summer] will increase the share of nuclear in our fuel portfolio from approximately 11 percent to approximately 30 percent…Fourth is its low greenhouse gas emissions.”

But more than that, it was nice knowing that, after a 30-year break, America is (pending final NRC approval) going to be building a nuclear power plant again.

Think about it. Upwards of 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity all produced with a small amount of uranium. In a facility with a relatively small physical footprint, especially compared to the equivalent space renewables would use. (One of the things that struck me about my first visit to a plant was how small it was.) And it all happens without combustion, so no greenhouse gases are produced.

The AP1000 reactor design for the facilities comes from Westinghouse. Westinghouse, based in Pennsylvania, was acquired by Toshiba Corporation and other partners in 2006. But at the end of the day, a U.S. company will play a major role in building a reactor on American soil creating American jobs.

There has also been a lot of talk lately on what counts as a shovel-ready project. Both the V.C. Summer project in South Carolina and the Vogtle project in Georgia [another subject of a recent NRC mandatory hearing on its combined operating license] fit the bill. In fact, the shovels have already started digging in early work at the sites. Southern Company—which is heading up the Vogtle project—can’t wait to get started.

“We will be in a position to implement the rule-making as soon as it is affirmed,” Joseph “Buzz” Miller, executive vice president for nuclear development of Southern Nuclear Operating Co., said...

The NRC is expected to approve the Vogtle COLs sometime “very early next year.” The Summer COLs, presumably, would not be far behind.

When the COLs get issued, I will be heading over to Southern’s website on the progress at Vogtle to keep track of what’s going on. And right after that, I’ll be checking in with NASA on its next missions.

More Nuclear Plants for Mississippi?

Several governors and senators from Southern states met this week at the Southern States Energy Board to discuss topics such as oil and gas development, nuclear energy legislation and Environmental Protection Agency regulations. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)  and Governor Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) were among the participants who led the conversation on nuclear energy issues.

Gov. Barbour voiced his support for building another nuclear energy plant in Mississippi.

Candidly, we’d love to have another nuclear power plant. … We don’t have, ‘Not in my backyard.’ We have, ‘Please in my backyard.’

Gov. Barbour’s support for nuclear energy is not unfounded, as Mississippi’s Grand Gulf 1 nuclear energy plant makes up more than 17 percent of the state’s total electricity generation and 100 percent of the state’s total emission-free electricity. The state relies heavily on natural gas (54 percent), which can cause steep fluctuations on electricity prices for the state’s residents. In addition, Mississippi’s geographic region and weather conditions do not necessarily lend themselves to renewable energy sources (a problem among some other Southern states as well), which makes the continued development of nuclear energy an attractive option.

Sen. Graham at the meeting called for increased support from environmentalists in Congress on developing nuclear energy policies. There are several key issues he believes need to be addressed. Platts reports:

Nuclear regulations should be “streamlined,” he [Sen. Graham] said, saying that it takes twice as long to license and build a nuclear plant in the U.S. than it does in France. Utilities investing in large nuclear projects need to ensure that a lawsuit does not hold them up in the final year of construction.

And continued:

In addition, municipal- and state-owned electricity cooperatives that participate in nuclear projects should be allowed to transfer the tax credits they would have received to for-profit utilities, he said. That would allow Santee Cooper, the electric company owned by South Carolina, to transfer production tax credits it would have received from its new nuclear projects to investor-owned Duke Energy, Graham said.

More on the Southern States Energy Board can be found on their website.

Photo of Gov. Barbour at the Southern States Energy Board on Oct. 4, 2011. Credits: George Altman, Washington Bureau

Senator Supports Overturning West Virginia's Ban on Nuclear Energy

West Virginia is the largest coal producer east of the Mississippi and generates nearly all of its electricity with coal-fired plants. Even so, some state legislators, mindful of both environmental and economic factors, think the state's 1996 ban on nuclear energy should be overturned. Sen. Brooks McCabe says the ban is inconsistent with West Virginia's position as an “energy state”:

If we’re an energy state, we ought to say we’re an energy state and not exclude anyone.

While McCabe doesn’t see a nuclear plant in West Virginia’s future anytime soon, even if the ban were overturned, he believes the United States needs to become self-sufficient where energy is concerned and that “nuclear will have some part of that equation.” In particular, he envisions small, scalable nuclear plants being built:

I would suggest that at some point in the future … you’re going to see much smaller, in some ways more mobile, nuclear power plants—little mini-plants, almost like you see in some of these natural gas turbines that are out there.

While the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan has renewed concerns about nuclear energy, McCabe notes that the plant’s problems were caused by a tsunami—something West Virginia doesn’t have to worry about, he said:

How big nuclear energy will be remains to be seen. Probably less substantial than it would have been prior to what’s happened in Japan. But I think technologies are changing and improving.

Making the United States self-sufficient in energy will require a mix of renewable energy, coal, gas, hydro, geothermal and nuclear, McCabe said. At the same time, he said, the nation must balance environmental requirements with the need to keep electricity affordable:

I have a real concern about maintaining affordable cost of electricity in this state so our industry can be competitive at the global level. …If we’re not careful, we’re going to price ourselves out of manufacturing, and that would be just an unmitigated disaster.

McCabe repeatedly has supported legislation to overturn West Virginia’s ban on nuclear energy. A number of other states also are looking at similar action. For example, the Minnesota House and Senate both passed bills in February that would eliminate the state’s moratorium on nuclear energy. It remains to be seen how the accident in Japan may affect plans for new nuclear plants. Duke Energy, for one, is sticking to its plans to develop a new reactor, while studying lessons learned from Fukushima Daiichi, according to Chief Executive Officer Jim Rogers.

State Sen. Brooks McCabe