EoW May 2011

Transat lant ic Cable

❈ A further inhibiting factor in the South Texas project is that, even before the Japanese crisis, NRG was having trouble attracting buyers for the power. The US Energy Department requires proof of a customer base before it will guarantee a construction loan. Similar uncertainty hangs over a project at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, about 60 miles fromWashington, stalled since last year. The owner of two nuclear reactors there – Maryland- based Constellation Energy – was in a partnership with Électricité de France to build a third, but pulled out on grounds that the government’s fee for a loan guarantee was too high. The French utility has said it will seek another partner. ❈ Reporting again a day later – this time from Athens, Alabama – Mr Wald described a tour hosted by the Tennessee Valley Authority of its Browns Ferry nuclear plant there. The plant’s reactors are of the same design and vintage as those damaged in Japan, but with many more safety features in place. The agency, Mr Wald wrote, “seemed to be seeking to project a balance of confidence and openness to improvements, a challenge now faced by the entire American nuclear industry as the nation watches the Japanese struggle to contain their crisis.” More on Paci c Gas and Electric and those of its customers who want wireless radiation kept out of their homes “Customers afraid of the radiation from the company’s wireless SmartMeter may soon have a choice. Accept the device as-is. Or ask PG&E to turn off the meter’s transmitter – and pay higher monthly bills.” Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle , David R Baker outlined the Pacific Gas and Electric Co solution to an issue reported in this space last time: the belief of many of the utility’s customers that radiation from cell phones, laptops and other wireless devices can pose a health threat. The company, based in San Francisco, has faced increasingly strong protests against its installations of new electricity and gas meters throughout Northern and Central California. (“SmartMeters: PG&E Wants to Charge Users to Opt Out,” 25 th March). The meters – which continuously deliver information to the energy grid – also enable customers to monitor their energy use online. But PG&E customers in the suburban counties north and south of San Francisco and the coastal regions near Santa Cruz and Monterey have complained that the signals cause headaches, nausea and dizziness. In November, PG&E indicated that it might offer customers a way out of the $2.2 billion programme. The president of the California Public Utilities Commission ordered the company to submit its plan by 24 th March, which it in fact did. But Mr Baker reported that the SmartMeter opt-out plan, which would need the commission’s approval to take effect, has served only to further incense critics of the company. “We consider PG&E’s proposal to be one more false solution,” Joshua Hart, with the group Stop Smart Meters, told the Chronicle . “We need to have public health hearings to get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, we need to stop installing these meters. It’s insane.”

Energy

After Japan, the American nuclear power industry takes stock

Writing fromWashington in the New York Times , Matthew L Wald reported on a 24 th March conference call in which John W Rowe, chief executive of Exelon Corp, sought to reassure investors – and the American public – about the safety of the company’s nuclear reactors. Chicago-based Exelon is the largest operator of nuclear power plants in the US, with 17 reactors in 10 nuclear power plants. There are 104 such reactors in place nationwide. Mr Rowe declared that his company is well prepared to “respond to emergencies not contemplated in the original [reactor] design.” Even so, he said, after the Japanese crisis American regulators can be expected to impose new safety requirements on nuclear plants. He warned the investors that this could entail “significant costs” to the utilities that operate the plants. (“Exelon, Largest US Reactor Owner, Seeks to Reassure,” 25 th March). As to the safety aspect, Mr Rowe’s views reflect those held by others in the domestic nuclear industry, who note that American reactors generally do not face the same risks that figured prominently in the problems at the Fukushima Daiichi complex in Japan. While seismic activity resists accurate prediction, most nuclear plants in the US stand on higher ground and are farther inland than their Japanese counterparts. Christopher M Crane, Exelon’s president and chief operating officer, told the Times ’s Mr Wald that nuclear plants in the US also have some design features that he believes were absent at Fukushima Daiichi, including a system to control hydrogen buildup and a hardened vent system to safely remove the gas from the building. In addition, diesel fuel for the emergency generators at US plants is normally kept in buried tanks to prevent its being swept away, as happened in Japan. Limited prospects for reactors In the matter of fiscal stability, however, the nuclear power industry in the US is less well situated, and firms that had already struggled with financing problems are now likely to face new hurdles in the wake of Japan’s troubles. Mr Rowe, whose company Exelon is focused on upgrading the output of its existing plants, told the Times , “I believe that there is little opening for new nuclear plants in the near future. But that view has come from economics, not from safety.” NRG Energy Inc had intended to add two new reactors at its South Texas project with a Japanese partner, Toshiba. But the New Jersey-based company said on 22 nd March that it was “reducing the scope of development” to give the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission time to assess the lessons from Japan. Mr Wald wrote: “While NRG said it did not expect any changes in the design it planned to use, it faces other issues.” In May 2010, Tokyo Electric Power Co, which owns Fukushima Daiichi, took a nine per cent stake in the Texas project and said it might increase that to 18 per cent. Noted Mr Wald: “It is unclear whether the Japanese company can still afford the American commitment, given the multibillion-dollar cost of the Japan disaster.”

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EuroWire – May 2011