atw 2018-10
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<strong>atw</strong> Vol. 63 (<strong>2018</strong>) | Issue <strong>10</strong> ı October<br />
This reflects the administration’s focus on grid<br />
resilience, which began last September when Mr Perry<br />
directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to “take<br />
swift action” to address threats to the resiliency of the US<br />
electric grid.<br />
Last week, in another signal that momentum for change<br />
is gathering pace, a broad coalition of 75 former US<br />
statesmen, national security officials and industry leaders<br />
urged Mr Perry to take immediate action to prevent the<br />
closure of nuclear reactors.<br />
The signatories urge Mr Perry to take concrete steps to<br />
ensure the national security attributes of US nuclear power<br />
plants are properly recognised by policymakers and are<br />
valued in US electricity markets.<br />
The letter, posted online by the Washington-based<br />
Nuclear Energy Institute lobby group, said the national<br />
security benefits of a strong domestic nuclear energy sector<br />
take many forms, many of which overlap and together are<br />
woven into the nation’s greater strength and resilience.<br />
Nuclear power plants are among the most robust<br />
elements of US critical infrastructure, the letter said. They<br />
have up to two years’ worth of fuel on site, providing<br />
valuable fuel diversity and increasing the resilience of the<br />
electrical grid by eliminating the supply vulnerabilities<br />
that some other forms of energy supply face.<br />
Congress continues to demonstrate bipartisan support<br />
for nuclear energy, with the Senate passing an appropriations<br />
bill last week that provides $1.2bn for the DOE’s<br />
nuclear energy programmes. The overwhelming 86-5 vote<br />
on the spending package came just over two weeks after<br />
the House passed a similar bill that also saw strong funding<br />
for nuclear energy.<br />
And in what the NEI called “a demonstration of the<br />
Trump administration’s continued support for revitalising<br />
the commercial nuclear industry”, the DOE recently<br />
announced nearly $64m in funding for advanced nuclear<br />
energy technology projects to be carried out by DOE<br />
national laboratories, universities and private companies.<br />
In recent months, the DOE has provided almost $ 90m<br />
in funding for advanced nuclear R&D projects through<br />
several different mechanisms, the NEI said.<br />
Meanwhile, the age of the existing nuclear fleet is a<br />
problem for the present. That’s not because America’s<br />
nuclear reactors are falling apart –they are regularly<br />
inspected, and almost all of them have now gone through<br />
the process of renewing their original 40-year operating<br />
licences for 20 more years, said David McIntyre, a public<br />
affairs officer at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission<br />
(U.S. NRC). A few, including the Turkey Point nuclear<br />
station in Florida, have even put in for a second round of<br />
renewals that could give them the ability to operate for a<br />
total of 80 years.<br />
Instead, it is the cost of upkeep that is prohibitive. Components<br />
degrade and break down, especially components<br />
exposed to radiation on a daily basis. Maintenance and<br />
repair, upgrades and rejuvenation all take investment.<br />
And right now, that means spending lots of money on<br />
power plants that are not especially profitable.<br />
Author<br />
NucNet<br />
The Independent Global Nuclear News Agency<br />
Editor responsible for this story: Kamen Kraev<br />
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www.nucnet.org<br />
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Inside Nuclear with NucNet<br />
US Says Nuclear is Vital to National Security as DOE Works on Rescue Proposals ı October