EoW May 2011

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EuroWire – May 2011 27
Transat lant ic Cable
Energy
After Japan, the American
nuclear power industry takes stock
Writing fromWashington in the New York Times, Matthew L Wald
reported on a 24th 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,”
25th 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 22nd 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.”
❈ 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,” 25th 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 24th 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.”