Nuclear Street - Nuclear Power Plant News, Jobs, and Careers

Matt Wald The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior director of policy analysis and strategic planning at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald . We’ve said it often: nuclear power is a foundation of a reliable power grid, holds down carbon emissions and is a staple of local economies. But it’s nice to hear it from others as well, and ...read more

Matt Wald The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior director of policy analysis and strategic planning at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald . Six southern governors have declared states of emergency in the last few days, because a gasoline pipeline sprung a leak near Birmingham, Alabama . The pipeline, which runs from East Texas to ...read more

The following was written by Maya Chandrashekhar, project manager for Nuclear Steam Supply Systems Engineering at AREVA Inc, for the Powered by Our People promotion . She has been with AREVA and the nuclear industry since 2007. Maya Chandrashekhar What you do and why you enjoy doing it? As a project manager, my main goal is to help our customers solve ...read more

Matt Wald The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior director of policy analysis and strategic planning at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald . A Federal appeals court recently ruled against companies that make commercial refrigerators in a case involving energy efficiency standards. What does this have to do with nuclear power? Potentially ...read more

I started my career at Entergy’s Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Southwest Michigan 11 years ago as a security officer. After seven years, I moved on to become a supervisor of Document Control and Records Management. Now, I’m a senior emergency planner, thanks to the encouragement of my nuclear mentor, Otto Gustafson. In emergency planning, I’m proud ...read more

When Marian Kellett first moved to Tri-Cities, Wash. while in her 20s, she wasn’t too sure about nuclear energy. “I was so negatively biased toward nuclear power growing up. Our landlord, a Ph.D. at Battelle Northwest, was a good guy who was clearly smart,” Kellett said. “The fact that he chose to raise a family here challenged every (negative) preconception ...read more

The past two weeks have seen record temperatures grip the nation as a " heat dome " has descended over most of the continental U.S. While it isn't news that summer is hot, it is when the temperatures are 15-20 degrees higher than average for this time of year. But life must go on and the electricity must flow. Without the sort of reliable ...read more

Donell Banks Donell Banks works at Southern Nuclear’s Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4 as a shift supervisor in Operations, but is in the process of transitioning to his newly appointed role as the daily work controls manager. He has been in the nuclear energy industry for about 11 years. I love what I do because I have the unique opportunity to help shape ...read more

The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior director of policy analysis and strategic planning at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald . The German parliament voted on July 8 to slow the growth of renewable energy, by ending lavish subsidies intended to develop as much wind, sun and biomass as quickly as possible. Instead, the government ...read more

The 2016 Republican National Convention got underway in Cleveland last night, kicking off a two-week period of non-stop political coverage that typically keeps "inside the Beltway" types like us glued to the television (we will be similarly riveted when the Democrats meet next week in Philadelphia). Just as is the case with the annual State ...read more

Diablo Canyon Pacific Gas & Electric Co. made national news when it announced last week that it will operate the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant through its original license period and then retire the facility in the mid-2020s. Some parties are suggesting—wrongly—that the agreement is a blueprint for nuclear plant retirements in other states. ...read more

The following is a guest post by Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides, senior manager of strategic workforce planning. Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides Interns this summer will deliver more to the office than their energetic personalities, they will be bringing a new generation into the workforce. This year’s crop of interns includes the first wave of new post ...read more

Ted Jones The following is a guest post by Ted Jones, Director of International Supplier Relations for NEI. This week, the U.S. Congress received for review a renewal agreement for nuclear energy cooperation with Norway. When the pact comes into force, it will restore nuclear cooperation that lapsed when the original agreement expired in July 2014. ...read more

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi Change has come fast and hard to the nuclear industry, indeed to the entire energy sector. We are in a race to adapt to new realities: abundant, cheap natural gas; little or no growth in electricity demand; mixed signals about the importance of controlling carbon emissions; ...read more

Back in 2012, The New York Times noted a certain ethical laxitude about some of the biggest tech companies : Internet companies often cloak themselves in an image of environmental awareness. But some companies that essentially live on the Internet are moving facilities to North Carolina, Virginia, northeastern Illinois and other regions whose main sources ...read more

Here at NEI, it seems as if the first five months of the year has gone by in a blur. January featured Third Way's Advanced Nuclear Summit and Showcase . February was our annual Wall Street Briefing . March saw us participating in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory's Commission's Regulatory Information Conference . The Nuclear Industry Summit straddled ...read more

The following is a guest post from Natalie Wood, vice president coordinator at Entergy's River Bend Station. Natalie Wood As I prepared to take on my role as the president of the North American Young Generation in Nuclear , I spent a lot of time thinking about how to best align the organization to help advance the future of nuclear. As the future ...read more

The American nuclear energy industry is heading to Miami this week for the 2016 Nuclear Energy Assembly ( agenda ). The theme of the meeting is Delivering the Nuclear Promise , which is also the industry-wide effort championed by NEI that aims to advance safety, reliability and economic performance at U.S. nuclear power plants. We'll be live streaming ...read more

Fertel lays down the law at the DOE summit. If Washington policy makers hadn't heard the news before, they should have it figured out now after yesterday's DOE summit (archive of live stream) -- a critical part of America's infrastructure, it's nuclear power plants, are under imminent threat of premature closure and the costs to the ...read more

In a few minutes, NEI CEO Marv Fertel will take the podium at a summit sponsored by the Department of Energy about at-risk nuclear plants (live stream). His speech, just posted online, makes for sobering reading: We thought the first plant shutdowns at Kewaunee and Vermont Yankee would galvanize action to prevent additional shutdowns. We were obviously ...read more

The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior director of policy analysis and strategic planning at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald . Nuclear energy is by far the largest source of carbon prevention in the United States, but this is a rough time to be in the business of selling electricity due to cheap natural gas and a flood of subsidized ...read more

Elizabeth Fako The following is a guest post by Elizabeth Fako, a communications specialist at Entergy's River Bend Nuclear Station . When people ask what my favorite part of my job is, the answer is easy: I get to spend every day working with people who think in a completely opposite way than me and I love that. The operators, engineers and other ...read more

Michael Purdie The following is a guest post by NEI's Michael Purdie. In 2015, total generating costs for U.S. nuclear generation declined to $35.50/MWh from $36.35/MWh, a two percent decrease (2015 dollars). Total generating costs are the “all-in” costs that include fuel, capital, and operating expenses. As the table below shows, the costs decreased ...read more

Tom Kauffman The following is a guest blog post by Tom Kauffman, NEI's Director of Media Relations. Over more than three decades since the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear accident , claims that radioactivity from the plant caused negative health effects have been refuted time and time again. In over twelve studies, not one found any detectable impacts ...read more

Jonathan Breed The following guest post is from Jon Breed, manager of supplier advocacy programs at NEI. On April 1st, 2016, Governor Scott Walker signed a bipartisan bill ending Wisconsin’s 33-year moratorium against building new nuclear energy facilities . After signing the bill, Walker said that “nuclear energy sustains Wisconsin’s economy two ways ...read more