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The German nuclear industry is expecting a revival for their power source, but not so fast, warns the new German government. The bosses of Germany's big utilities were rubbing their hands with glee when it surfaced that Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservatives would be re-elected in a team with the pro-business Free Democratic Party -- both groups had campaigned in favor of nuclear power, and they were set to scrap the planned phase-out of the controversial energy source. After the election, Juergen Grossmann, the head of utility RWE, urged the new government to swiftly extend the running times of the German reactors. But officials from both parties have warned utilities that nuclear won't be boosted at all costs. "If the utilities refuse our terms and conditions then the nuclear phase out will remain in place," Andreas Pinkwart, a senior FDP official, told German news magazine Der Spiegel.

The German nuclear industry is expecting a revival for their power source, but not so fast, warns the new German government. The bosses of Germany's big utilities were rubbing their hands with glee when it surfaced that Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservatives would be re-elected in a team with the pro-business Free Democratic Party -- both groups had campaigned in favor of nuclear power, and they were set to scrap the planned phase-out of the controversial energy source. After the election, Juergen Grossmann, the head of utility RWE, urged the new government to swiftly extend the running times of the German reactors. But officials from both parties have warned utilities that nuclear won't be boosted at all costs. "If the utilities refuse our terms and conditions then the nuclear phase out will remain in place," Andreas Pinkwart, a senior FDP official, told German news magazine Der Spiegel.

"The latest task of the state Senate Business and Commerce Committee provides a welcome opportunity for Texas to rein in rogue utilities like CPS Energy of San Antonio. Now charged with studying the costs of municipally owned utilities' generation plans and their impacts on residential and commercial customers, the Senate committee has the opportunity to protect Texans, especially low-income families, from the machinations of a utility bent on pleasing its industrial consumers at the cost of its most vulnerable customers. CPS Energy is pursuing a risky investment in a nuclear expansion project that, depending on the final cost of the project, would raise rates between 36 percent and 60 percent over the next 10 years. The municipally owned utility has failed to adequately involve the citizenry and city government in its generation planning process. CPS Energy's nuclear energy plan lacks any mechanism to protect consumers or low-income families, despite the fact that those customers would have to pick up the tab if the deal gets more expensive."

"The human-caused oil gusher on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico illustrates a point about low-probability, high-cost industrial disasters: The industry will pay some; the public will pay the rest in cash and trauma. The nuclear power industry is a lot like that. On one hand, utility companies assure us that nuclear technology is exceedingly safe. On the other hand, it's clear that they don't think a serious accident is out of the question, since they refuse to build nuclear power plants unless the government limits their liability, as it has done since the 1950s. How safe is nuclear energy? Judging from the actions of those in the industry, it's not safe enough for them to bet their own companies' measly futures on it unless they have government backup (that's us). A major accident is improbable, but a nuclear catastrophe would make BP's spill in the gulf look like a paper cut. "

Nuclear Power Industry New is a blog about utilities, companies, suppliers in the nuclear energy market. NRC Finalizes New Jersey Agreement To Regulate Certain Radioactive Materials NRC will transfer an estimated 500 licenses for radioactive material to New Jersey's jurisdiction The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has completed an agreement with New Jersey, under which the state will assume NRC's regulatory authority over certain radioactive materials. New Jersey becomes the 37th NRC Agreement State, effective Sept. 30. Under the agreement, the NRC will transfer to New Jersey the responsibility for licensing, rulemaking, inspection and enforcement activities for: (1) radioactive materials produced as byproducts from the production or utilization of special nuclear material (SNM - enriched uranium or plutonium); (2) naturally occurring or accelerator-produced byproduct material (NARM); (3) source material (uranium and thorium); (4) SNM in quantities not sufficient to support a nuclear chain reaction; and (5) the regulation of the land disposal of source, byproduct, and SNM received from other persons.

Nuclear Power Industry New is a blog about utilities, companies, suppliers in the nuclear energy market. NRC Finalizes New Jersey Agreement To Regulate Certain Radioactive Materials NRC will transfer an estimated 500 licenses for radioactive material to New Jersey's jurisdiction The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has completed an agreement with New Jersey, under which the state will assume NRC's regulatory authority over certain radioactive materials. New Jersey becomes the 37th NRC Agreement State, effective Sept. 30. Under the agreement, the NRC will transfer to New Jersey the responsibility for licensing, rulemaking, inspection and enforcement activities for: (1) radioactive materials produced as byproducts from the production or utilization of special nuclear material (SNM - enriched uranium or plutonium); (2) naturally occurring or accelerator-produced byproduct material (NARM); (3) source material (uranium and thorium); (4) SNM in quantities not sufficient to support a nuclear chain reaction; and (5) the regulation of the land disposal of source, byproduct, and SNM received from other persons.

Judging from its recent actions, the nuclear industry has given up on the pretense that the technology is cost competitive with presently or soon-to-be available alternatives, whether or not climate change legislation is enacted. Recognizing that capital markets will not support the construction of new reactors, nuclear industry lobbyists at the federal and state legislatures have launched a full court press to get loans from taxpayers (in the form of federal loan guarantees) and ratepayers (through construction work in progress, or CWIP) to fund these projects. The same factors that have led Wall Street to refuse to finance reactors and to lower the ratings of utilities that are trying to build them are the very reasons that taxpayers and ratepayers should not be forced to foot the bill for new nuclear reactors. Loan guarantees and CWIP force taxpayers and ratepayers to bear the marketplace, execution, policy, technology and financial risks that capital markets will not.

Judging from its recent actions, the nuclear industry has given up on the pretense that the technology is cost competitive with presently or soon-to-be available alternatives, whether or not climate change legislation is enacted. Recognizing that capital markets will not support the construction of new reactors, nuclear industry lobbyists at the federal and state legislatures have launched a full court press to get loans from taxpayers (in the form of federal loan guarantees) and ratepayers (through construction work in progress, or CWIP) to fund these projects. The same factors that have led Wall Street to refuse to finance reactors and to lower the ratings of utilities that are trying to build them are the very reasons that taxpayers and ratepayers should not be forced to foot the bill for new nuclear reactors. Loan guarantees and CWIP force taxpayers and ratepayers to bear the marketplace, execution, policy, technology and financial risks that capital markets will not.

What's powering your home appliances? Multiple warhead ballistic missiles like the ones deployed at this site north of Russia's border with Kazakhstan are being dismantled. Some nuclear material goes to the United States. For about 10 percent of electricity in the United States, it's fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, including Russian ones. "It's a great, easy source" of fuel, said Marina V. Alekseyenkova, an analyst at Renaissance Capital and an expert in the Russian nuclear industry that has profited from the arrangement since the end of the cold war. But if more diluted weapons-grade uranium isn't secured soon, the pipeline could run dry, with ramifications for consumers, as well as some American utilities and their Russian suppliers. Already nervous about a supply gap, utilities operating America's 104 nuclear reactors are paying as much attention to President Obama's efforts to conclude a new arms treaty as the Nobel Peace Prize committee did.

What's powering your home appliances? Multiple warhead ballistic missiles like the ones deployed at this site north of Russia's border with Kazakhstan are being dismantled. Some nuclear material goes to the United States. For about 10 percent of electricity in the United States, it's fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, including Russian ones. "It's a great, easy source" of fuel, said Marina V. Alekseyenkova, an analyst at Renaissance Capital and an expert in the Russian nuclear industry that has profited from the arrangement since the end of the cold war. But if more diluted weapons-grade uranium isn't secured soon, the pipeline could run dry, with ramifications for consumers, as well as some American utilities and their Russian suppliers. Already nervous about a supply gap, utilities operating America's 104 nuclear reactors are paying as much attention to President Obama's efforts to conclude a new arms treaty as the Nobel Peace Prize committee did.

The Government is considering fresh tax breaks for Britain's nuclear power industry that could smooth the way for the construction of a new generation of UK reactors, The Times has learnt. Whitehall insiders have told The Times that officials at the Department for Energy and Climate Change have been studying the possibility of an exemption for nuclear electricity from the climate change levy, a tax on industrial energy consumption that was created to boost energy efficiency. The levy, which was introduced in 2001, raises an estimated £1 billion a year for the Treasury. Suppliers pay the levy on electricity provided to businesses to Customs & Excise and then pass on the costs to customers.

The Government is considering fresh tax breaks for Britain's nuclear power industry that could smooth the way for the construction of a new generation of UK reactors, The Times has learnt. Whitehall insiders have told The Times that officials at the Department for Energy and Climate Change have been studying the possibility of an exemption for nuclear electricity from the climate change levy, a tax on industrial energy consumption that was created to boost energy efficiency. The levy, which was introduced in 2001, raises an estimated £1 billion a year for the Treasury. Suppliers pay the levy on electricity provided to businesses to Customs & Excise and then pass on the costs to customers.

"Breaks Under Kerry-Lieberman Wipe Out Risk for Utilities Already Benefiting From Massive Loan Guarantees Earth Track Analysis Finds That Just Two of the Subsidies Add Another $1.3 Billion to $3 Billion in Tax Breaks Per Reactor; May Make It More Likely Taxpayers Will Face Downside Risk. Washington, DC -- The nuclear industry could end up facing no risk under massive tax break subsidies in the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, according to an important new analysis conducted for Friends of the Earth by the research organization Earth Track. These tax breaks totaling $9.7 billion to $57.3 billion (depending on the type and number of reactors) would come on top of the Kerry-Lieberman measure's lucrative $35.5 billion addition to the more than $22.5 billion in loan guarantees already slated for nuclear power. Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica said: "Doling out an additional $1.3-$3 billion in tax breaks per new reactor means the industry would be at the table playing almost entirely with taxpayer money. Industry will have little to lose when a reactor goes belly up. While taxpayers are bankrolling the industry's nuclear gamble they would share in none of the reactor's financial returns. In fact, all taxpayers will receive if the reactors are built is responsibility for disposing of the waste. By contrast, investors stand to make billions with no risk should their reactor gambit goes belly up and enter bankruptcy." "

In a blow to the nuclear power industry, the budget released by President Obama last week eliminates most funding for Yucca Mountain, the Nevada site that for decades has been proposed for the permanent burial of radioactive nuclear waste. The decision will likely be an expensive one, considering how much money the federal government might end up owing the utility industry, and how much-up to $10.4 billion-has already been spent and will have been wasted on the search for a nuclear waste repository since 1983. The courts have already awarded the companies about $1 billion, because the government signed contracts obligating it to begin taking the waste in 1998, but seems unlikely to do so for years. The nuclear industry says it may demand the return of the $22 billion that it has paid to the Energy Department to establish a repository, but that the government has not yet spent [The New York Times].

U.S. Congressman Charlie Gonzalez wanted two things out of the Waxman-Markey climate bill: assistance for the nuclear industry, and free pollution credits for utilities like our City-owned CPS Energy. He nailed free pollution days before the legislation was voted out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce last week by requiring most carbon credits to be given away to industry rather than auctioned off. This industry-friendly change, among others, outraged the environmental community, most of whom still felt pressured to support the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 in order to make some progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Remarkably, however, amid the bill's 170,000 words, "nuclear" gets hardly a mention.

Craig A. Severance Several U.S. utilities are now advancing proposals for a new generation of nuclear power plants. Though massive cost overruns and construction delays in the 1970's and 1980's caused U.S. utilities to cancel over 130 nuclear plant orders 1, the nuclear industry is now hoping to ride a wave of concern over global warming. Can new nuclear power help the U.S. electric power industry cut greenhouse gas emissions, at a reasonable cost?

"Exelon will get incentives from the American Power Act and the bill will increase the company's earnings in five years, if it passes. John Rowe, chief executive officer of nuclear firm Exelon, saw the writing on the wall about government penalties and rewards for producers of greenhouse gases. Rowe considers himself the "senior chief executive in the utility industry" having served in those positions since 1984. He presided over Exelon's formation from the merger of Chicago utility Unicom and Philadelphia utility Peco. During his time at Unicom predecessor Commonwealth Edison, Rowe changed the course of the company's future to focus on nuclear power instead of dirtier coal and oil-fired plants."

The development of nuclear reactors on the Hanford Reservation in Central Washington during World War II encouraged electric utility planners to pursue the construction of nuclear reactors to satisfy rapidly escalating demands for electricity from both residential and industrial customers in the 1960s and 1970s. Public utility districts and municipal utilities throughout Washington joined in a cooperative named the Washington Public Power Supply System to finance the construction of three nuclear reactors to produce electricity for consumers throughout Washington State. Some historical questions: What impact has WPPSS had the electric power supply of the Pacific Northwest? The construction of WPPSS nuclear reactors was financed by the sale of bonds. What kind of return did WPPSS bond holders get on their investment?. Why wasn't system completed? What characteristics of nuclear energy caused trouble for the system? How were the increasing electricity needs of the State met without WPPSS's nuclear power plants? Be sure to consider other possibilities for historical questions as you analyze and interpret this topic.

As the nuclear industry prepares to ramp up construction nationwide, Indiana legislators considered Tuesday whether to allow utilities to recoup some project costs from customers years before a reactor is in operation. House and Senate members heard testimony about an incentive known as "construction work in progress," whereby utilities can charge ratepayers for interest costs on the overall project from the beginning. When a plant is up and running, the utility can start recovering the actual construction costs though the existing regulatory structure.

"'Under the Radar': Outgoing Bush White House Hiked Likely Penalties Borne by Taxpayers By Inking Deals With Over a Dozen Utilities; 170 Groups in All 50 States Release Principles Urging an Upgrade in Spent Reactor Fuel Storage Safety to Withstand Equivalent of '9/11 Attacks' Between the output of existing commercial nuclear reactors and 21 proposed nuclear reactors covered by agreements quietly signed by the outgoing Bush Administration with more than a dozen electric utilities, the United States already has agreed to store enough spent (used) reactor fuel to fill the equivalent of not one, but two, Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste repositories, according to documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Given that the U.S. is back to square one for the first repository, U.S. taxpayers would be on the hook for potentially tens of billions of dollars in penalties that would have to be paid to utilities if the 21 proposed reactor projects proceed. This new information about the daunting scale of the challenge that faces the United States in disposing of spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors comes one day before the first meeting of the Obama Administration's "Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future." In addition to highlighting the serious consequences of the eleventh-hour deals stuck by the Bush White House, experts also focused public attention on the fact that the recently cancelled Yucca Mountain repository -- even if it were open today, 35 years after the process to create it started -- would already be filled to its legal limit of 63,000 metric tons of commercial waste by this spring. A second repository the same size would be filled with the 42,000 additional metric tons of spent fuel yet to be produced by existing nuclear reactors and the 21,000 metric tons that would be produced by the 21 proposed reactors covered under the Bush-industry agreements."

The European Commission has told French energy giant EDF that its long-term electricity contracts with French industrial customers are counter competitive and could lead to an abuse of its dominant position in the French power market, the utility said in a statement released late on Christmas Eve. In July EDF said it had finalized agreement terms with industrial power user group Exeltium for contracts to supply some 13 TWh/year of power for 24 years.

Spain on Wednesday reaffirmed its policy of not commissioning new nuclear power plants a day after its biggest utility unveiled plans to build them in Britain, while repeating pledges to boost renewables and save energy. "There will be no new nuclear plants," Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian told journalists when asked to comment on Iberdrola's (IBE.MC) joint venture with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE.L) to build nuclear power stations.

Taxpayers may be forced to subsidise Britain's nuclear renaissance through a levy tacked on to household fuel bills under plans being developed by the energy industry. Utility executives have told ministers that their pledge not to use public aid to fund the the £40 billion rollout of new nuclear power stations is no longer realistic. The levy is one of several proposals tabled. Talks about how to structure an aid mechanism are at an early stage, but there is a consensus in the industry that without help the new power plants will not be built.

Germany's Federal Administrative Court has ruled that utilities RWE (RWEG.DE) and Vattenfall [VATN.UL] may not extend the lifespan of their Biblis A and Brunsbuettel nuclear power plants as they had sought. The utilities had planned to transfer allowances to produce power at the Muelheim-Kaerlich nuclear power plant to Biblis A and Brunsbuettel and thus operate the power plants longer than initially planned.

"Nuclear power can play a key role in the U.K.'s future energy mix, Minister Charles Hendry told executives from Electricite de France SA, Centrica Plc and other utilities. While the new coalition government won't subsidize the industry, it will remove regulatory barriers and encourage nuclear power by establishing a minimum price for carbon, the energy minister said at the Nuclear Industry Forum in London. Britain, needing 200 billion pounds ($300 billion) to renew aging power plants in the next two decades, will have to tap international investors for the first time, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. "