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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30332888797087801062016-07-26T12:58:33.851-04:00Yes Vermont YankeeA blog about Northeast energy issues, and in support of nuclear power.Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-91434390381086153692016-07-25T12:01:00.001-04:002016-07-25T12:01:54.932-04:00No Country for Old Nukes? Mike Twomey Guest post

Vermont Yankee

In a scene from Cormac McCarthy's novel, No Country for Old Men, a professional assassin taunts his rival (who is cornered, defenseless, and about to meet his maker) with the following query:

"If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?"

It is a profound question intended to raise doubts about the decisions we make, the principles we follow, and the assumptions that guide our behaviors. A version of this concept is applicable to a wide range of situations: If the road you traveled brought you to a negative outcome, was it the right road? (Where could you have made different or better decisions?) Or, in the positive: If the road you traveled brought you to a positive outcome, it was the right road. (Do not waste your time or energy second-guessing the seemingly unhelpful detours along the way.)

I work for one of the largest nuclear operators in the U.S. and my responsibilities over the last several years have included advocacy on behalf of the continued operation of nuclear plants in New York and New England. Working with a large team, this effort has involved complex, technical presentations to state and federal agencies with jurisdiction over the related matters that affect the licenses under which the nuclear plants operate, as well as extensive stakeholder outreach to educate the public, the media, elected officials, and others about the important benefits of nuclear power, from an electric reliability perspective, from an economic perspective, and from an environmental perspective.

Over the last six or seven years, the wholesale market for electricity has dramatically changed due to persistent low natural gas prices. In most "organized" markets (New York, New England, Mid-Atlantic, for example), the price for power typically follows the price for natural gas. Therefore, as the price for natural gas has plunged, wholesale power prices have also plunged to historic lows.

While wholesale power prices have plunged, the cost to run a nuclear power plant has increased, for a variety of reasons. You do not have to be a finance professional to conclude that increasing costs and decreasing revenues will eventually lead to unprofitability. Faced with these grim economic prospects, in 2013, Entergy announced the retirement of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, VT. Vermont Yankee delivered electricity to the New England electric grid for the last time on December 29, 2014, ending a more than 42-year run of providing clean, reliable energy, employing more than 600 nuclear professionals, and paying millions annually in state and local taxes.

Due to the same economic forces that led to Vermont Yankee's closure, Entergy also announced the retirement of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, MA in May 2019. Pilgrim produces more than 80% of the carbon-free energy generated in Massachusetts. In addition to inflicting the same type of economic harm in and around Plymouth that Vermont Yankee's retirement inflicted on southern Vermont, Pilgrim's retirement will make it very difficult for the Commonwealth to meet its legal obligation to reduce greenhouse gases.

During the last ten years, while we have been seeking federal (and, in some cases, state) approvals to continue to operate our existing nuclear plants, many federal and state officials have separately been pursuing efforts to reduce carbon emissions. These efforts have included federal agency actions (most notably, the EPA's Clean Power Plan) and various state actions, including legislation, agency actions, and "encouragement" provided to utilities to take steps to reduce electric sector carbon emissions (e.g., the recent multi-state "clean energy" RFP issued by utilities in several New England states).

In general, these federal and state carbon reduction efforts have focused on providing significant subsidies and/or long term contracts to renewable energy sources, primarily wind and solar. But, these carbon reduction efforts have not included any proposals to support the continued operation of existing nuclear facilities. For example, the Clean Power Plan provides no incentives to states to maintain their existing nuclear plants. And, the multi-state "clean energy" RFP issued by several New England utilities in 2015 excluded existing nuclear facilities from participating. In short, carbon reduction advocates have tended to be single-minded in their objective: Increase the use of renewable energy.

According to data from ISO-New England, reliance on natural gas for electricity production in New England more than tripled from 2000 to 2015 (15% to 49%). During that same period, contributions from hydro resources and renewable energy resources remained essentially flat (7% and 8-9%, respectively). Nuclear also remained essentially flat (31% to 30%), with uprates and increased availability offset by Vermont Yankee's retirement. The big declines have come in the use of oil-fired (22% down to 2%) and coal-fired (18% to 4%) generation. And, from 2000 to 2014, New England saw steady reductions in CO2 emissions as natural gas-fired plants replaced oil- and coal-fired plants.

In 2015, however, Vermont Yankee's retirement increased New England's CO2 emissions by 5 percent, or more than two million metric tons. The reason? Natural gas-fired generation replaced Vermont Yankee's output. A similar outcome followed the retirement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station in California, which resulted in meaningful increases in CO2 emissions. Future nuclear plant retirements can be expected to produce the same results. This means that we can expect increased CO2 emissions.

The takeaway for New England, therefore, is this: The mix of federal and state actions (and inaction), combined with market forces, has led to (1) substantially increased reliance on natural gas-fired generation, (2) nuclear plant retirements followed by increased CO2 emissions, and (3) no meaningful increase in renewable energy's contribution to the grid. ISO-New England, the non-profit, independent entity responsible for maintaining the reliability of the region's electric grid, identified the following challenges in its most recent report:

Inadequate natural gas pipeline infrastructure is at times limiting the availability of gas-fired resources or causing them to switch to oil, which is creating reliability concerns and price volatility, and contributing to air emission increases in winter.

Substantial nongas generating capacity is retiring, limiting the options for reliable grid operation when natural gas infrastructure is constrained.

The weather-dependent output from wind and solar resources and the increase in [distributed generation] adds complexity to how the ISO must operate the power system to maintain reliability.

Expensive transmission infrastructure upgrades are needed to connect more wind and hydro resources.

Efforts to meet state policy goals to inject more clean energy into the system through long-term contracts may undermine confidence in the markets and inhibit future investment in competitive power resources.

We are left to ponder the consequences of a single-minded focus on supporting renewable energy and a lack of support for the existing nuclear fleet. Even if you disagree about the relative merits of carbon reduction efforts, it is inarguable that additional nuclear plant retirements will lead to increased CO2 emissions. Moreover, the increased dependence on natural gas-fired resources reduces fuel diversity and exposes customers to potential price volatility. An important additional fact to recognize is that, once a nuclear plant retires, there is no opportunity to bring that plant back into service (it is not technically impossible, but it is infeasible from a regulatory standpoint and an economic perspective).

If we are, through application of a "renewable energy is the only future" rule, moving toward an electric future of increased carbon emissions, less grid reliability, insufficient fuel diversity, and increased consumer prices, then stakeholders (customers, elected officials, businesses, etc.) will be entitled to ask: If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?

There is another path to follow. In New York, the Public Service Commission is considering the adoption of a program that would compensate nuclear facilities for their non-carbon emitting attributes. It would be the first in the U.S. to explicitly -- and financially -- acknowledge the importance of the existing nuclear facilities to carbon reduction goals. All who desire a future electric grid that is clean, reliable, and affordable should applaud New York's efforts. And, we should decline the pitch of renewable energy advocates who peddle the fantasy that wind and solar alone can power the grid.

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About the author:

Mike Twomey is Vice President for External Affairs at Entergy. He is involved in many areas of negotiation and outreach concerning the nuclear plants. His most recent guest post at this blog was The Replacement for Vermont Yankee Was...Natural Gas.

This post first appeared on LinkedIn and is republished by permission.

Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-26748757776285439902016-07-23T09:00:00.000-04:002016-07-23T11:05:12.730-04:00Closing Diablo Canyon would be a loss for California

March for Environmental Hope
In San Francisco June 24
From Mothers for Nuclear Facebook page

Diablo Canyon and Agreements

Closing Diablo Canyon would be a great loss for California air quality and grid reliability. To be blunt about it: What are these people thinking?

Well, they aren't thinking. They are kicking the can down the road. My post at Northwest Clean Energy blog, Closing Diablo Canyon a big loss for California, gives an overview of the PG&E agreement with anti-nuclear groups, how they are kicking the can. I encourage you to read it.

What are these people thinking?

The Southern California Grid has a rolling-blackout plan, even now, with Diablo operating. According to the San Diego Union Tribune "natural gas curtailments" could interrupt electricity service for as many as 14 days this summer. Basically, gas supplies are constrained: in California, part of the constraint is the aftermath of the massive Aliso Canyon gas leak.

So, with California ISO considering its rolling black-out planning and gas curtailments, PG&E plans to close Diablo Canyon! How did California get into such a fix, anyway?

Part of the answer is about requiring unrealistic renewable energy standards, and another part is having anti-nuclear groups at the planning table for the agreement, with pro-nuclear groups excluded (unless they are unions).

Well, hey, I'm used to pro-nuclear groups being excluded.  When Jaczko met with "citizen volunteer groups" in Brattleboro a few years ago, the Energy Education Project that Howard and I founded was not considered a citizen's group. Howard and I sat in the peanut gallery, not at the table.

The history and the actions

To understand the history of the Diablo Canyon situation, read my post at Northwest Clean Energy Blog. Also, watch quick videos of the California Lands Commission hearing at Rod Adams blog post: Showing Up and Speaking for Diablo Canyon in California.

To learn about actions you can take for Diablo Canyon, go to the Save Diablo Canyon or Californians for Green Nuclear Power websites. These websites have links for donations, signing petitions, and for breaking news. There are several other groups also active for Diablo Canyon. For more links, visit my blog post Diablo Canyon and What To Do About It.

Actions are more important than history.

Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-36847789224953158142016-07-17T14:39:00.001-04:002016-07-17T19:41:16.326-04:00Write a comment! Support New York Nuclear Plants

Fitzpatrick plant

The Clean Energy Standard

New York State has proposed a Clean Energy Standard which would support not just renewables, but ALL clean energy, including nuclear power. Implementing this standard would keep the upstate nuclear plants operating.

The comment period on the standard was supposed to close tomorrow. But, the comment period has been extended until Friday July 22. Here's where to comment.

http://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/Comments/PublicComments.aspx?MatterCaseNo=15-E-0302

What is the Clean Energy Standard?

It's a proposal to support all clean energy power plants: both renewable and nuclear. Here's the staff proposal under current review:

https://www.scribd.com/document/317819837/PSC-staff-proposal#from_embed

And here's one of many newspaper articles on the subject:

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2016/07/nuke_subsidies_ny_extends_comment_period_but_aims_at_aug_1_decision.html

Michael Shellenberger has an excellent article on the subject: http://www.environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2016/7/13/in-wake-of-deal-to-save-fitzpatrick-james-hansen-other-scientists-environmentalists-urge-new-york-to-protect-nuclear-plants

Please comment and post about it and send links to your friends in New York State!

It is also worthwhile to comment on some of the newspaper articles, but the main thing is: comment to the New York Department of Public Service.  (This is the same link as the first link. I'm just trying to make it VERY easy to get to the place where you can comment to the New York Department of Public Service.)

The comment extension

Ummm....the people who asked for the comment period to be extended are NOT friends of nuclear energy. You can bet that they are getting their act together for a major blitz next week.

Send in your pro-nuclear comments!
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Examples and ideas for comments

The Environmental Progress organization has good information and example comments on this Google Drive.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rp5WnQ2s3BwFYohdJr9Zud2ipLoV6vrHZO4f7TMNYlI/mobilebasic

My own comment is below:

Nuclear is the largest source of zero-emissions energy in New York State. If we are serious about lowering (or holding steady) on carbon dioxide, we must keep the nuclear plants running. I live in Vermont, and when Vermont Yankee closed, the carbon emissions on the New England grid rose by 5 to 7% by various calculations. The 7% is from Utility Dive magazine, an industry publication. It is based on numbers from the New England grid operator. http://www.utilitydive.com/news/iso-ne-emissions-rose-after-vermont-yankee-nuclear-facility-closed/414404/

All existing zero-emission sources need support! If people pick and choose: ooh, I don't like nuclear or ooh, I don't like hydro or ooh, wind turbines are terrible, then these existing zero emission sources WILL be closed. And they WILL be replaced by fossil. It is as simple as that, really.

I am in favor of nuclear for the future, but if someone doesn't like to build more nuclear, that is about policy for the future. For right now: Keep and Support the Existing Zero Emissions Sources that we have! Close Fossil First!

Renewables are heavily supported for their zero-emissions qualities, and nuclear deserves some similar support.

Please move forward on the Clean Energy Standard to protect our zero-emission sources.Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-17418230178770622592016-07-08T10:33:00.000-04:002016-07-08T10:33:07.549-04:00Much about politics, but little about fish.

Herring larva in drop of water
Matchstick for comparison

River Water, Sea Water and Nuclear Plants

My article Keeping cool under pressure describes the many ways that "water quality issues" are used by states to attack the continued operation of nuclear power plants.

 Vermont Yankee, Oyster Creek, Indian Point, Turkey Point, Diablo Canyon, and Columbia Generating Station have been accused of overheating rivers and/or causing the death of billions of fish. Well, the death of billions of fish eggs or larva (larva are newly-hatched fish). These accusations have closed down plants or made them far more expensive to operate.

My article appears in the May 10 edition of Nuclear Engineering International Magazine. The section about Turkey Point is a separate call-out in that article, due to the unusual canal-based cooling at Turkey Point.

In reality, the reason most fish eggs don't grow up to be adult fish is--other fish. Fish eggs are an important food source for fish, so fish lay thousands of eggs. An American Shad lays about 30,000 eggs per year. A salmon lays a more modest number, around 3,000. A fish egg usually does not become an adult fish, and this has nothing to do with power plants. It's about other fish: the fish that like to eat fish eggs.

Some links

I am always very pleased to write an article for an important magazine such as Nuclear Engineering International. However, "read my article" seems a rather thin blog post. So I finish this post with a couple of links that can supplement my magazine article.

Diablo Canyon: The owners of this power plant recently announced that the plant would close by 2025. This article describes the upgrade-your-cooling-system issues the owners would have faced if they had chosen to stay open.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article39459930.html

Indian Point: The plant has ristorph screens and proposes adding wedgewire screens. Opponents continue to push for expensive cooling towers, but offer no reason to believe that cooling towers will be better for the fish. http://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/04/26/indian-point-entergy-wedgewire-screens-cooling-towers/8238627/

Vermont Yankee: Vermont lost a lawsuit that asked the NRC to deny Vermont Yankee's license extension because Vermont Yankee didn't have the proper state-level water permit. Even some of the plant opponents said that such concerns have to be raised before appropriate commissions, rather than in lawsuits. http://yesvy.blogspot.com/2012/07/vermont-loses-lawsuit-against-nrc-about.html#.V37lAjYXH3F

Oyster Creek: State of New Jersey closes plant, ostensibly to protect Barnegat Bay.
http://www.nj.gov/dep/barnegatbay/plan-oystercreek.htm

Columbia Generating Station: This blog post has an excellent graphic that compares the water use of the power plant with the volume of water flowing through its water source, the Columbia River, near the plant. https://northwestcleanenergy.com/2014/11/01/environmentalists-need-to-decide-if-science-matters-or-not/

Turkey Point: There is no evidence that any effluents from the plant or the plant canals will harm drinking water, or will affect Biscayne Bay. Still, some groups are suing the plant for causing vaguely-stated environmental harm. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/us/nuclear-plant-leak-threatens-drinking-water-wells-in-florida.html?_r=1

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I enjoyed putting these supplemental links together, but I do hope you will read the article itself: Keeping Cool Under Pressure.

Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-29624137312922819612016-06-21T20:25:00.002-04:002016-06-22T07:05:05.170-04:00Diablo Canyon and What To Do About It

Rally for Diablo Canyon
Mothers for Nuclear,, Californians for Green Nuclear Power and others
June 17, 2016
San Luis Obispo
Photo from Californians for Green Nuclear Power

The Announcement and What To Do

Today, PG&E announced that it would not apply for a license renewal for Diablo Canyon, but would close the plant by 2025. The New York Times article this morning: California's Last Nuclear Power Plant Could Close.

 IF this agreement goes through, Diablo Canyon will stay open for another eight years before it closes. Eight years is not tomorrow. This is not the time to despair and scuttle the ship. Now is the time to take action! There are things we can do to help our nuclear plants survive.

Right now, we can do two things: Sign a Petition and Make a Donation. I have done both.

Sign a Petition to the White House

A petition to the White House requests that the special benefits of nuclear power be recognized by federal government policy. The petition has 13,000 signatures, and needs 100,000 to get a response from the White House. Sign it here to Keep America's Nuclear Power Plants Working for US!

Please sign it and circulate it!

Make A Donation to the March for Environmental Hope

California pro-nuclear groups are marching from San Francisco and Oakland to Sacramento, in the March for Environmental Hope. They will publicize the importance of nuclear power for California, and they will attend a meeting of the California Lands Commission. The Commission will be holding a crucial vote about Diablo Canyon.

The March is sponsored by Mothers for Nuclear, Save Diablo Canyon, and Environmental Progress. Other groups will be marching with them: Californians for Green Nuclear Power and Thorium Energy Alliance.

The marchers in California are doing this for all of us, for everyone who believes in nuclear energy as the safe, clean energy of the future. Help them! You can donate here, and help pay campground fees and so forth for the marchers.

 Commentary

Three excellent articles, worth reading:

Rod Adams at Forbes: NRDC Announces PG&E Has Agreed to Kill Diablo Canyon
James Conca at Forbes: Pro-Nuclear March In San Francisco to Protest Closing of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant
Michael Shellenberger at Environmental Progress: Why Diablo Canyon Will Live--and Why the Corrupt PGE-IBEW-NRDC Proposal Will Fail

And, just for fun, to see some of the stakes in this particular case, from the San Diego Times Tribune yesterday: Heat wave raises worries about power outages. To quote the article:

Rotating outages result when utilities, largely due to gas issues, don't have enough supply to meet demand.
"We would tell the utilities to turn off the power to a substation...until.... we can go back to balancing supply and demand in real time," Greenlee (of California ISO) said.
Outages can last from 30 to 90 minutes.
But Greenlee said as of Monday afternoon, the system was holding up.

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In other words:

Sign!
Donate!

Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-55901527526500768382016-06-14T19:59:00.000-04:002016-06-14T19:59:13.565-04:00New England Grid Operator Meeting This FridayThe purpose of the Consumer Liaison Group (CLG) is to be the voice of the electricity consumer in advising the grid operator, ISO-NE. As the annual report states: The Consumer Liaison Group (CLG) is a forum for sharing information between ISO New England (ISO) and those who ultimately use and pay for electricity in New England.

The next meeting of the Consumer Liaison Group will be the day after tomorrow: Friday June 17 at the Double Tree Hotel in Westborough MA. The topic is grid security from the consumer point of view. ( I am on the Coordinating Committee for the CLG. )

CLG meetings are free, but you should register in advance if you want lunch. Here's the information. However, since the picture is merely a screen shot, I supply the relevant links below the picture. I hope to see some of you there.

Double Tree Westborough

CLG web page

Register

Mary Louise "Weezie" Nuara firstname.lastname@example.com

Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-6848226895638305262016-06-12T18:57:00.000-04:002016-06-13T13:55:01.151-04:00Nuclear Blogger Carnival #313: Here at Yes Vermont Yankee

Once again, we are proud to host the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers, right here at Yes Vermont Yankee. The Carnival is a compendium of nuclear blogs that rotates from blog site to blog site, and it is always a pleasure and an honor to host it.

Economics

Too Cheap to Meter

At Nuke Power Talk, Gail Marcus discusses "Too Cheap to Meter" and the continued speculation about what Lewis Strauss might have meant when he uttered those words 62 years ago. Her post links to the speech itself. (These words were part of a set of hopes for an abundant future; they were not a price prediction.)

It is broken markets, not uneconomic plants that are putting nuclear plants at risk

At the MZConsulting blog Milt Caplan discusses the need for long-term investment which is not met by today's "deregulated" markets. In these markets, natural gas is the price maker, and all other plants are price takers. However, some types of not-natural-gas plants plants are subsidized. This market system is broken, and the effects on existing and new infrastructure may be severe.

How Can Nuclear Power Survive after Electricity Market Deregulation?

It might seem that this article follows directly from the previous article about prices in the United States. Instead, this one is about Japan: A report based on a dialogue between Edward Kee and Prof. Takeo Kikkawa during the April 2016 Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) Annual Conference in Tokyo. The JAIF event covered topics related to the way nuclear power will fit into the Japanese electricity industry as deregulation and electricity markets are implemented.

Obama, Modi Kick Start the Westinghouse Nuclear Deal

At Neutron Bytes, Dan Yurman notes that the deal won't go very far unless some major challenges are overcome.

Clean Energy

TVA Way Ahead Of The Pack With Nuclear and Solar

At Forbes, James Conca reports on news from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This year, TVA took significant actions that will move the country forward on what many think is the best energy mix for the future – nuclear and solar. This month alone, TVA started their latest solar power program, submitted the first-ever permit application to the NRC for a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), and their Watts Bar 2 Nuclear Generating Station became the first new nuclear power plant in the U.S. in this century to reach criticality.

A Positive Message: Pro-Nuclear Videos from World Nuclear Association

At Yes Vermont Yankee, I share two videos from the World Nuclear Association. These short, accurate videos share a positive message on the role of nuclear energy. The first one is Nuclear Energy Leaves More Space for Nature, and the second is Nuclear Energy Helps Solve the Climate Puzzle. Enjoy and share these one-minute videos.

Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-90770963961034860412016-06-10T07:56:00.000-04:002016-06-10T10:58:31.707-04:00A Positive Message: Pro-Nuclear Videos from World Nuclear AssociationRecently, the World Nuclear Association made two pro-nuclear videos which are short, accurate, and charming. Each one-minute video sends a clear message about the importance of nuclear energy for the future of the world.

These videos support the positive vision of the role of nuclear energy. In two minutes, these videos show the reasons that most of us prefer nuclear energy to fossil fuels.

World Nuclear Association recently started a website nuclearfootprints.org. The site includes a public declaration in favor of nuclear. You can sign the declaration here.

Enjoy!

Nuclear Energy Leaves More Space for Nature

Nuclear energy has a tiny footprint from World Nuclear Association on Vimeo.

Nuclear Energy Helps Solve the Climate Puzzle

Nuclear energy helps solve the climate puzzle from World Nuclear Association on Vimeo.Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-78618153615873085562016-06-05T14:59:00.000-04:002016-06-05T17:27:02.543-04:00Pro-Nuclear March in California starts June 24

Worldwide Clean Energy Decline

Clean Energy on the decline

A new organization, Environmental Progress, calculates that the percentage of electricity generated by clean energy sources is on the decline world-wide. Fossil plants are being built all over the world. Yes, fossil plants are being built in the United States, too. Natural gas plants are being built here. The United States natural gas industry has tried to convince everyone that burning natural gas is good for the environment, but gas plants are still fossil plants.

Meanwhile, due to political (mostly) and economic (some) forces, nuclear plants are closing. More fossil plants are being built. Therefore, the percentage of electricity generated from clean energy sources--- is declining worldwide.

As nuclear closes down, wind turbines do not and cannot make up the loss. Fossil plants are doing it. In the Northeast: closing Vermont Yankee meant more gas was used, and this led to 5% more carbon dioxide emitted from the electricity sector in New England. That is what happens when a nuclear plant is closed.

The Purpose of the March

In response to the clean energy decline, three organizations are sponsoring a multi-day march in California, starting on June 24. As their website says:

March for Environmental Hope

Because the Stakes Couldn't Be Higher

The three sponsoring organizations are
Mothers for Nuclear
Save Diablo Canyon
Environmental Progress
Two other groups are marching with them:
Californians for Green Nuclear Power.
Thorium Energy Alliance

(It is wonderful to see several groups actively supporting nuclear energy. I hope this is a trend. They say trends often start in California.)

From Mothers for Nuclear

The March itself

The march seems very well organized. Scroll down here to see the full official schedule, camping arrangements, etc.

The march starts in San Francisco, with a march to Greenpeace and Natural Resource Defense Council headquarters.

Then the march moves to East Bay, with camping near Lake Solano.

Then the bicycle-city of Davis California.

The march finishes at the State Capital, Sacramento, at a Lands Commission Meeting.

The State Lands Commission is considering whether to renew Diablo Canyon's permits for ocean intake and outfall pipes. The Land Commission permits expire six years before the NRC license would need to be renewed.

Donate

Not all of us can be in California, but we can all donate to the march. If you can attend, this is the signup sheet. The organizers are asking marchers to donate $25 a day for camping fees and food. Not all the marchers will be able to do this. Click the donate button on this page and perhaps donate enough for one camper for one day (or enough for two campers for two days, or...well, you get the picture).

Support the March!Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-47535882742464941182016-05-25T21:25:00.000-04:002016-05-25T21:25:27.885-04:00The Distribution Grid: Christine Hallquist on Grid ControversiesHallquist and the grid

Christine Hallquist, CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative, presented the third class in my course: The Grid: What Your Electricity Bill Won't Tell You.

On May 3, 2016 at my class on grid issues, Hallquist described the grid from the perspective of a rural electric cooperative in Vermont. She heads Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC). This utility was one of the rural Cooperatives of the Rural Electrification movement: it was founded in 1938 to bring electricity to rural Vermont. It is now the largest locally-owned electric distribution utility in Vermont. VEC is dwarfed by Green Mountain Power, a utility with a very Vermont-y name. However, Green Mountain Power is actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gaz Metro of Quebec.

In my opinion, Vermont Electric Cooperative is the quintessential Vermont utility. It started in the Rural Electrification movement of the 30s, and and it is a cooperative in which the owners and the consumers are the same people.

 The Grid: What Your Electricity Bill Won't Tell You 3/3 from CATV 10 on Vimeo.

As CEO of VEC, Hallquist is concerned with the cost shifts involved in net metering, since VEC's service area includes low income areas of Vermont. When your owners are your customers, you pay sincere attention to the economic issues.

Late in the talk, Hallquist also discusses grid stability. Intermittent power tends to be destabilizing: the grid was set up for rotating electric machinery. Rotating machinery has a healthy inertia which helps keep the grid stable. Starting at about 1:20 (1 hour 20 minutes into the talk), Hallquist shows the jagged effects of wind and solar, and the almost un-analyzable harmonics of the intermittents on the grid. Few utilities collect this type of data.

I am very grateful to Christine Hallquist for sharing her information and her wisdom with our class.

It happens first in a village

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple is able to solve crimes because she has carefully analyzed many (supposedly) smaller issues in a small village.

To a large extent, Vermont Electric Cooperative is a "village" for the growth of renewables. The owner/customers are not rich, and they need to keep electricity costs low. While places like Germany can boast of their renewables while simultaneously building lignite-fired plants, VEC is actually adding renewables and dealing directly with the costs and stability issues that renewables present.

For example, the owner/customers have made decisions, very recently, on how to keep wind energy from being curtailed on their grid. They are making decisions, right now, on how much net metering the customers can afford.

VEC is hopeful about advances in energy storage and weather forecasting and so forth. (See Hallquist's last slide on "What are we doing about it.") But right now, there are very real limits for renewables on a small grid, and VEC is reaching those limits.

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Previous sessions

The first session was The Grid: Power and Policy Introduction, and Howard Shaffer on the Physical Grid.  The second session was Payments on the Grid: What Every Citizen Should Know. This post is the third and session. The fourth session was a field trip to ISO-NE, the grid operator headquarters.

Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-2637209708093651092016-05-22T15:56:00.000-04:002016-05-22T15:56:13.582-04:00Patty O'Donnell at the Department of Energy Summit on Nuclear Power Plants

A lilac

Department of Energy Summit on Improving the Economics of Nuclear Power Plants

On May 19, the Department of Energy held a summit on Improving the Economics of America's Nuclear Power Plants. The four-hour meeting included many distinguished speakers, including Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Senator Cory Booker, and more. You can watch the entire meeting at this link.

A major purpose of the meeting was to find ways to keep America's nuclear fleet running. Scientific American reported on the meeting. They quoted Secretary Moniz: "We are supposed to be adding zero carbon sources, not subtracting or simply replacing (them)..." The Scientific American article features a picture of Vermont Yankee. The Bloomberg article on the meeting has the following title -- Moniz: Closing Nuclear Plants Poses 'Huge Problem'.

Vernon's own Patty O'Donnell spoke at this meeting. O'Donnell described the human impact due to Vermont Yankee closing. If you move the video slider to the 2:39 mark (2 hours and 39 minutes into the four hour video) you can watch her ten minute talk. It was an important and moving description of the effects of the plant closing. Her talk showed a part of the human face of "why we need nuclear energy."

Adams blog focuses on O'Donnell's talk

Rod Adams' Atomic Insights blog post about the meeting focused on O'Donnell's talk. His post is Real people are harmed when other people decide to close nuclear plants.  I encourage you to read it, and also to read the comments. Adams blog gets interesting and knowledgable comments.

Adams also made a YouTube of O'Donnell's talk. He has it posted on his blog post, and I am sharing it here. Big THANK YOU to Rod Adams! A ten-minute video is so much more appealing than a four hour video. I share his video below.

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Two little notes:

I used a picture of a lilac on this blog post because a lilac is blooming outside my window now, and because I imagine myself handing a bouquet of flowers to Patty O'Donnell.

My own major blog post on this subject is Circles of Pain around Vermont Yankee Closing.Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-3262231730802193242016-05-17T11:33:00.003-04:002016-05-17T11:33:22.860-04:00Payments on the Grid: What Every Citizen Should KnowPayments on the Grid

In my opinion, payments and policy on the grid will determine our future energy mix.

Most people believe that they know about power sources: gas, nuclear, hydro, coal, solar, wind. We know what the plants look like, and we have opinions.

In contrast, most people know almost nothing about the grid: how plants are dispatched, how plants are paid, what the controversies are. Yet these grid-level decisions will determine our power mix in the future.

 The Grid: What Your Electricity Bill Won't Tell You 2/3 from CATV 10 on Vimeo.

I think that most people will learn something from watching this video, and pro-nuclear people will find it especially interesting.

(The first class session consisted of an introduction to the course, followed by an introduction to the physical grid. Howard Shaffer gave the guest lecture on the physical grid. The entire first class session is posted at The Grid: Power and Policy Introduction and Shaffer on the Physical Grid.)Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-82643128934819318582016-05-12T10:43:00.002-04:002016-05-12T19:51:31.951-04:00 Cesium in the Biosphere: Guest Post by Stewart Farber

Stewart Farber
MSPH

Air Pollution and Dosimetry

Starting in 1972, for about 3 years, as a Public Health scientist and air pollution control specialist, I was responsible for upgrading and reviewing the Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program data from VY (and other Yankee plants) and generating periodic summary reports to the NRC.

In 1975, I was responsible for getting approval for a multi-million dollar centrally located state-of-the-art, greatly enhanced environmental lab. This lab was far more advanced than the labs of any of the then-current commercial contractors. The lab was established as the Yankee Atomic Electric Co. Environmental Lab in Westboro, MA. Vermont Yankee management were willing to share in the substantial expense of setting up this advanced facility. This lab analyzed radiological environmental samples from VY, as well as Maine Yankee, Yankee-Rowe, and Seabrook (and misc. other plant samples) and performed personnel dosimetry services for these nuclear plants for over 25 years.

Meteorological Monitoring

I proposed upgrading the meteorological monitoring program at all Yankee plants in 1974, including VY. To its credit, VY willingly, despite the cost, supported installation of a 300' meteorological tower (vs. 120'). This met tower had more advanced met instrumentation, and a computerized data acquisition system to digitize wind speed, wind direction, and temperature at 3 elevations so it could be reviewed from a central facility on a routine basis. This made met parameters available remotely in the event of an emergency, in order to assist in emergency planning. VY recognized the value of having good met and environmental radiological data and willingly shared in the costs this required. The sponsor companies and staff at VY deserve substantial credit.

A comment follows on the variability of environmental radioactivity of nuclear fission isotopes as a cautionary note on jumping to conclusions about environmental radioactivity based on limited sampling, something which VT politicians with an agenda often used against VY to negatively influence public opinion and advance their short-sighted agenda.

Wood Ash and Cs

Wood burning fireplace

In 1990 I took a sample of wood ash from burning hardwoods in my fireplace at a vacation home I had in Warren, VT (which is 130 miles distant from VY in Vernon, VT) and had it analyzed for radioactivity level by sensitive gamma spectroscopy at the Yankee lab. Wood ash is the end product of burning roughly 100 to 300 pounds of wood to yield 1 pound of ash, so ash concentrates what minerals are in the wood to yield a sample that can serve as a very sensitive indicator of natural environmental radioactivity and potential contamination from man-made isotopes . This sample from Warren, VT as would be expected, contained very high levels of the natural isotope K-40 (half life= 1.2 billion years), multiple isotopes of the U-238 (half life 4.5 billion years) decay chain, and multiple isotopes of the Th-232 (half life= 14 billion years) decay series. These are primordial isotopes present in the environment; they are residual from the Big Bang. In addition, this sample contained very high, and quite surprising, levels of the nuclear fission product Cs-137 residual from atmospheric nuclear bomb testing by the US and USSR which ended in 1963.

This initial sample of wood ash from Warren, VT contained 15,000 pCi/kg ash of Cs-137 --the highest level of Cs-137 the Yankee Lab had ever seen in any background environmental sample analysis. I asked VY staff (and other nuclear facilities across the US) to submit a wood ash sample gamma spec analysis after the initial measurement in Warren was so surprisingly high. The wood ash sample from trees grown near VY was analyzed showing a Cs-137 level of about 1,500 pCi/kg ash --10% of the level of fallout Cs-137 seen 130 miles distant!!!! This demonstrated how variable man-made nuclear isotope fallout can be in the environment. This has NOTHING to do with a nuclear plant: a nuclear plant releases essentially zero levels of Cs-137 and Sr-90 in airborne releases.

Cs lower near Vermont Yankee

Many years later after 2011, anti-nuclear politicians like Governor Shumlin in VT, set out with their agenda to make VY look bad because slight differences in Sr-90 (present throughout the environment residual from open air bomb testing) were seen in a few fish near the plant and upriver from VY. A few isolated environmental measurements mean very little. As was seen with the wood ash measurements mentioned above, the Cs-137 level in wood ash near VY in 1990 was 1/10th the level measured 130 miles away in Warren.

This difference was not likely due to major differences in fallout from past bomb testing in Central vs. Southern VT but due to soil chemistry factors between the two locations. Can you imagine what some environmental activist charlatans might do and demand if Cs-137 levels in trees was 10 times higher near VY vs. 130 miles away, rather than the other way around as is actually the case?

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Steward Farber holds a degree in chemistry from Brown University, and an MS Public Health from UMass Amherst. Farber originally submitted this post as a two-comment set on my blog post Cinco de Bye-O at Vermont Yankee. However, I felt this knowledgeable and extensive comment deserved its own post. You might also want to look back at the original post, where Farber's writing gathered two more comments. One was about the different uptake of Cs by different tree species, and and the second comment was about pulses of radionuclides that are released in forest fires. Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-17603033282467489332016-05-10T06:37:00.002-04:002016-05-17T11:26:39.655-04:00The Grid: Power and Policy Introduction and Shaffer on the Physical GridI gave a three session course at OSHER, called The Grid: What Your Electricity Bill Won't Tell you.

The first session was an introduction to the course (power and policy) and Howard Shaffer's explanation of the physical grid....that is, electricity and how it flows.

The second session will be about policy and controversies on the grid, and the third session was the guest lecture by Christine Hallquist, CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative.

Because of the interest in the course, our local Community Access TV (CATV8) station videotaped it, and is also putting it on VIMEO.

I embed the first video below.

 The Grid: What Your Electricity Bill Won't Tell You 1/3 from CATV 10 on Vimeo.Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-68130443709045674692016-05-09T09:52:00.001-04:002016-05-09T09:52:26.843-04:00Fired or Laid-Off?

The Carnival
Almost every week, there's a nuclear blog "Carnival"--a compendium of important nuclear blog posts from the last week. This week Rod Adams hosted Carnival 308 at Atomic Insights.

(I have hosted the Carnivals on many occasions. For example, Carnival 304 was at Yes Vermont Yankee.)

What "Laid-Off" actually means
My recent post on Cinco de Bye-O is one of the posts in Carnival 308. As customary, I sent Adams a link and a proposed "blurb" about the blog. (The Carnival hosts can edit what they receive, but it is polite to send them something so they don't have to start from scratch, summarizing all the posts.)

Adams edited my description, and I think his edits and comments are worth sharing. He changed the words "laid-off" to the word "fired."He didn't just do this in a vacuum. Here is his comment on the change.

Aside: I changed the submitted description of the article to use "fired" instead of laid off. Too many people have forgotten that "lay offs" was originally intended to describe a temporary condition in which employees were asked to stay home while waiting for work to return with the season or the end of a sales slump. The 100 people who left the premises of Vermont Yankee on May 5th have no prospect of returning. Their plant's productive capacity has been destroyed. End Aside.

 I appreciate Rod Adams "Atomic Insights" of all kinds.

Read the Carnival!
I encourage you to read the Carnival this week. There are links to posts (and comments about the posts) on interim storage, decarbonizing Britain, the environmental impacts of fracking, an e-book edition of the book Nuclear Firsts, innovative power plants, and more.

I think that reading the Carnival is the fastest and most pleasant way to keep up with nuclear industry news. Read it this week.

Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-86974386572053523182016-05-05T09:15:00.002-04:002016-05-05T09:15:20.225-04:00Cinco de Bye-O at Vermont YankeeIt's today

Well, today is the day. About a hundred people will be laid off from Vermont Yankee, leaving a small staff of about 140 until such time as the fuel is moved into dry casks. (See the Mike Faber article in Vermont Digger for a history of the layoffs.) This will take place several years from now, around 2020, I believe. I think the fuel moving will be done by contractors, some of whom may be former Vermont Yankee employees. For now, however, the plant will be close to its shut-down goal of Cold and Dark.

A Fine Little Plant

My Facebook feed includes many Vermont Yankee employees. Oddly, I see more happiness than sorrow in the posts on FB. I realize that FB can be misleading, but still. I see pride in the excellent little plant. I see gratitude for the good work and the good companions. I see Cinco de Bye-O parties. I see humor. A bit of gallows humor, but still humor. The comment: "Tomorrow is the last day my husband will be getting up at 5:30 to go to the plant" is followed by: "Hey, maybe I'll go in late. What are they gonna do? Get rid of me?"

As I said, I know Facebook can be misleading. Still, I think the mood is basically far more upbeat than depressed. There is so much pride in the plant, and in work well done, and so much love for the co-workers. It's amazing to me. The mood is so different from the mood two years ago, when the "lists were up." The "lists" defined who would have one more year at Vermont Yankee, and who would have two years. I called the post about that day: Paint It Black. The day the "lists were up" was not covered in any local paper. They weren't interested in the pain of the Vermont Yankee workers.

In contrast, no doubt, there will be stories and op-eds galore about today. I'm not looking forward to some of the op-eds that will be published, though I think I could write some of them myself. I suspect Governor Shumlin (he who recently tried to destroy emails that may show some serious issues) will make a statement. Once again, Shumlin will look forward to the bright renewable future that is just around the corner for Vermont. As he has looked forward to it, so many times in the past.

(Enough about our current governor. With any luck, Vermont will get a special prosecutor about those emails. What goes around may yet come around. )

You Done Good

Governor Salmon making a statement in favor of VY
PSB hearing, November 2012

Many VY people will be laid off today. But, as we saw in the video posted yesterday, many VY people are leaving Vermont. So why despair? There are other places, and other jobs, far away from here.

Many don't have such jobs. Some are being moved into retirement, whether they like it or not. Still, overall the mood is good.

Why is the mood good? It's because Vermont Yankee was a great plant, with great people. People who worked there had reason to be proud of their work! That makes a difference, even when the work ends.

As Governor Salmon wrote in December 2014: Governor Salmon praises 42 year of Vermont Yankee. As George Clain, Past President of IBEW at Vermont Yankee wrote: Vermont Yankee Union President: You Done Good. December 2014 is when Vermont Yankee went offline forever.

And I say:

Vermont Yankee, you done good for Vermont. Thank you.

You finished strong.

May everyone in the Vermont Yankee family go from strength to strength in their lives.

You finished strong and you will be strong.

I hope your futures will be filled with happiness.

Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-73572796049216657772016-05-01T11:06:00.001-04:002016-05-01T11:06:43.141-04:00Video: Vermont Yankee people moving onMay 5 Layoff Day

On May 5, almost 100 Vermont Yankee employees will be laid off. As Entergy spokesman Marty Cohn notes in this video: there were nearly 650 employees when he started work at Vermont Yankee: in a few days, there will be only 150 employees. (approximate numbers).

In the 22 minute video below, Marty Cohn speaks to two employees that will be laid off. They happily discuss what they liked about working at Vermont Yankee. In both cases, their future plans take them away from Vermont.

Yes, there are sad moments in this video. These affected me:

When Larry Doucette notes that when he moved to Vermont, it took some some time to get used to the local anti-nuclear attitudes.

When Becky Josey describes her life-long residence in Vernon, and how her mother was a state representative who supported construction of the plant. Josey has deep roots in Vernon, but she plans to leave. Her plans are not completely due to Vermont Yankee closing, however.

I admire everyone at Vermont Yankee, because they are strong people and they did Finish Strong. I have so much admiration for them.

About the videos

Marty Cohn of Entergy has been hosting a series of videos about Vermont Yankee: SAFSTOR Matters. This series was chosen as 2015 Best Series of the Year at Brattleboro Community Television.Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-23471147861802100922016-04-28T18:15:00.001-04:002016-04-28T18:15:36.380-04:00More bad news for Vernon: Guest Post by Guy Page

Vermont Yankee
Vernon Dam in foreground
(picture from back when VY was operating)

The loss of Vermont Yankee's 1000-plus jobs and millions of dollars of tax revenue has been followed by more discouraging energy-related financial news for Vernon and other Connecticut River towns.

When Vermont Yankee closed in December, 2014, "glass half full" people could at least point to the Vernon Dam's $400,000 in annual tax payments and the hope that another power plant might be built near the Vermont Yankee site to take advantage of the new, nearby switchyard.

Now, the town has almost certainly lost the "bird in the bush" proposed power plant. And the "bird in the hand" Vernon dam may be wrenched from its grasp by the State of Vermont.

Last week's surprise announcement that the Kinder-Morgan natural gas pipeline would not be built has forced the shelving of plans for a natural gas-fired power plant near the Vermont Yankee site in Vernon. The KM line would have brought large new quantities of natural gas from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts and New Hampshire. But developers cited insufficient demand.

The pipeline cancellation may lead to more interest in power from north of the border. That's good news for the Clean Link power line proposed to run from Quebec beneath Lake Champlain, and then across Vermont to the Vernon switchyard. A similar power line from New York across Lake Champlain is also in the works. Furthermore Hydro Quebec recently announced a major marketing initiative for New England customers.

For Vernon, of course, the decision is a tough blow for backers who hoped the town could recoup some of the jobs and taxes lost when VY closed.

Furthermore, the proposed state purchase of 13 TransCanada Corp. dams on the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers includes the Vernon dam. The proposal, now under preliminary review led by a high-level "working group" appointed by Gov. Peter Shumlin, could lead to the dam becoming state property and therefore property-tax exempt. The state could offer Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT), which typically offers about 10 cents on the dollar, one Vernon official said.

A State of Vermont purchase of the TC Hydro dams, totally 567 megawatts and reportedly valued at about $800 million, is very far from a "done deal." If the dams are instead sold to another corporation, Vernon and other revenue-challenged towns with Connecticut River TransCanada hydro assets can still keep collecting taxes.

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Guy Page is the Communications Director for Vermont Energy Partnership, and a frequent guest blogger at this blog.Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-86023756223634928862016-04-22T09:57:00.000-04:002016-04-22T09:57:02.709-04:00Earth Day with Earth's DefendersEvery day is Earth Day. Or at least, much of my life is Earth Day. I am active in being kind to the Earth---by encouraging the use of nuclear energy.

For my post today, I will share some Earth Day videos and links.

Robert Downey Jr.

 Robert Downey Jr. (a celebrity, by golly!) speaking in favor of nuclear energy.

Mommies

Two mothers in California have started an organization: Mothers For Nuclear. They are both nuclear professionals. This will mean that anti-nuclear activists will almost certainly deny that they know anything.

I encourage you to encourage them. Visit their website, and contact them.

from Mothers For Nuclear website

Robert Stone on the Education of an Environmentalist

Robert Stone, director of Pandora's Promise, in Scientific American on The Education of an Environmentalist.

Stone didn't always like nuclear. He had to learn about it first.

Vermont Yankee and Hoover Dam

Last year, on Earth Day, I posted Atoms not Dams, including that Vermont Yankee made more power each year than Hoover Dam did (per year...Hoover Dam is older). Worth revisiting!

Happy Earth Day to All! Go Green! Go Nuclear!Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-21519735179355327842016-04-17T13:42:00.001-04:002016-04-19T09:11:58.180-04:00The Grid: My Course at Dartmouth OSHERThe Course

I have been quite busy in the past week, getting ready for the launch of my four-week course about the grid, The Grid: What Your Electricity Bill Won't Tell You. The course begins at OSHER at Dartmouth, Tuesday, April 19. Here is the course catalog description.

And here is a slide from my Tuesday April 19 presentation.

The Guest Speakers

I don't know why everything is taking me so much time! I have two great guest speakers, and we are taking a field trip to ISO-NE headquarters the last day of the course. With all this help, it should be easy-peasy for me to get ready for the course. Right? Okay. It's hard.

The guest speakers:

Howard Shaffer was a startup engineer on a major pumped storage project. He will speak on the first day, about the physical grid. Here is Shaffer's post about the difference between supplying power and paying for power. Where's the Magic Switch?

Christine Hallquist, CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative, will speak on controversies on the grid. Here is Hallquist's recent op-ed at VTDigger: Pricing Renewable Energy Right.

Videotape

The course will be videotaped for CATV8 community TV, and it will also be on-line. I will put links to the videos in some later blog posts. (In other words, I will be videotaped three times, and I haven't got a thing to wear.)

Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-74568862749715903732016-04-10T18:03:00.000-04:002016-04-10T19:39:47.430-04:00Nuclear Blogger Carnival #304, at Yes Vermont Yankee

Once again, we are proud to host the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers, right here at Yes Vermont Yankee. The Carnival is a compendium of nuclear blogs that rotates from blog site to blog site, and it is always a pleasure and an honor to host it.

Let's start by looking into the future with nuclear energy.

Expanding the Definition of Renewable

At Nuke Power Talk, Gail Marcus discusses how words like "renewable" come to be associated with specific technologies, but looking at the bigger picture. For example, solar and wind, usually regarded as renewable, use non-renewable materials to extract the "renewable" energy. On the other hand, we may well be able to extract uranium from seawater in the future. This could could make nuclear energy as renewable as solar and wind power.

Progress Report on HTGR reactors in China and U.S.

At Neutron Bytes, Dan Yurman describes newly-achieved milestones in the development of the high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR). The HTGR concept has more than three decades of history behind it. Both the U.S. and China are developing this type of reactor, and it has had several new breakout milestones in both countries.

Is Duke Still Banking on Lee?

At Neutron Bytes, Dan Yurman looks at the prospects for the new Lee plant. Duke will complete the NRC licensing process, but the answer to the question whether or when it will build the nuclear power station comes in several parts spread over two states.

Sometime later this year the NRC will issue a combined operating license (COL) to the William States Lee III nuclear power plant which references twin Westinghouse 1150 MW AP1000 nuclear reactors. Duke CEO Lynn Good says that once the utility gets the license from the NRC, it will still have to decide "how and whether it makes sense to build nuclear." Even if Duke started this year, it could take six-to-ten years before either unit entered revenue service.

"There are all kinds of considerations," Good says. The utility, as a publicly traded firm, has to take into account a "prudent investor." With a market capitalization of $55 billion, the estimated $12 billion the two units could cost would be just over 20% of the total value of the giant utility. That's pretty close to a "bet the company" decision which makes prudence a key factor in assessing the need for the project.

Now, let's look at why we need nuclear energy!

Illinois' Nuclear Dilemma Embroils Famed Climate Scientist James Hansen

At Forbes, James Conca writes that Illinois faces a peculiar dilemma in planning its clean energy future. Unless something is done, the state is going to lose its most important low-carbon energy source: nuclear energy. On Monday, a coalition of scientists and conservationists, including famed climate scientist James Hansen, sent an open letter to Illinois legislators. The scientists asked the legislators to stop nuclear closures from happening. (This post has an excellent graphic, which shows that nuclear might require a 0.3 cent per kWh surcharge to keep the plants running, while solar subsidies in Illinois are 21.9 cents per kWh.)

The Worth-It Threshold – When gas or gas + renewables is as bad for climate as a coal plant

At Atomic Insights a guest post by Mike Conley & Tim Maloney basically asks whether burning natural gas is truly better than coal for the climate. Burning methane for energy produces about half the CO2 of coal, which is a good thing. But fugitive methane – the gas that leaks before it can be burned – is a powerful greenhouse gas, with 84X the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2.

The big idea behind wind and solar farms is to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gases. But since most of a farm's power is actually generated by gas, the rationale for a massive build-out of utility-scale wind and solar hinges on the issue of fugitive methane.

That rationale just had a major meltdown at Porter Ranch.

Fallout From The Nuclear Security Summit

At Forbes, James Conca reports on the Nuclear Security Summit last week in Washington, D.C. The Summit showcased significant progress in reducing global nuclear weapons and nuclear material stockpiles, and increased security on nuclear facilities. A dozen countries are now free of weapons-grade materials.

There is a lot of good news: a newly-amended nuclear protection treaty was signed by over 100 countries. The historic nuclear deal with Iran has, so far, gone as planned. However, China is the country that is expanding most in nuclear power and weapons.

Looking backward a bit, and learning from history

Chernobyl through the mist of decades

At ANS Nuclear Cafe, Will Davis looks at Chernobyl: what happened, and what people said happened. The fog of three decades has obscured the memory of the Chernobyl accident. Many incorrect sources were written after the accident, and have have misled those in search of the facts. Will Davis uses historic documents and accounts of those directly involved during and after the accident. With the keen eye of a historian, Davis clarifies our perception of what really happened before, during and after.

State Control of Decommissioning Funds is a Bad Idea

At Yes Vermont Yankee, guest blogger Richard January describes the state of Vermont's attempts to "have input" on the decommissioning process. Vermont and Massachusetts are lobbying the NRC for "tighter rule-making" on decommissioning. As January points out, the state of Vermont is strapped for cash, and it is not clear that state decisions would be driven solely by safety, and not by the desire for another infusion of Vermont Yankee cash. NRC oversight of decommissioning is a far better idea.

Once again, pro-nuclear bloggers have covered many aspects of energy: nuclear energy, new types of plants, gas emissions, funding issues. Click on the posts and read more!

Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-428478078935720612016-03-29T11:16:00.003-04:002016-04-07T23:46:05.138-04:00Natural Gas Replaces Vermont Yankee Energy: Guest Post by Michael BielawskiNatural gas replacing Vermont Yankee's energy

This post appeared in Vermont Watchdog on March 29, and is used with permission.

Activists rally outside the Statehouse following a vote by the Vermont Senate to retire the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in 2012. Since the plant's closing, energy derived from natural gas has increased more than 5 percent.

When Vermont Yankee closed at the end of 2014, it was largely with the understanding that renewable energy sources were going to take its place. According to data supplied by regional grid operator ISO New England, such has not been the case.

Over the past two years, about 5 percent of New England's electric use swapped from nuclear to natural gas. While nuclear production dropped from 34 percent to 29.5 percent, natural gas rose from 43.1 percent to 48.6 percent. The data from ISO New England's Daily Generation by Fuel Type 2014 and 2015 was analyzed by the Institute for Energy Research, a group that tracks government regulation of global energy markets.

Vermont Electric Cooperative CEO Christine Hallquist says the market is shifting towards natural gas.

"There's a solid connection between the increased use of natural gas for generation in New England and the shutdown of Vermont Yankee," she said. "There's also been coal-fired generation that's been shut down, and natural gas is replacing it. It's the same trend all around the country."

According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency for Vermont, in 2013 at least 9.7 trillion BTUs, or about 8 percent of all consumed energy, came from natural gas.

Going forward, natural gas production could be coming to Vermont in a big way. Last year, the Vernon Planning Commission held a public meeting verifying they've been in contact with a developer about building a $750 million gas plant in town. That facility would link up to a not-yet-approved Kinder Morgan gas pipeline planned for southern New England.

Hallquist said increased natural gas output is necessary because renewables can't fill the gap left by Vermont Yankee's exit.

"The contribution from solar and wind wouldn't be significant enough to make up for the generation of Vermont Yankee," Hallquist said. "In fact, there's no way. … You would have to build like 1,800 megawatts of wind."

According to Hallquist, wind and solar have "low capacity factors" because they are dependent on the weather. The capacity factor is the average power generated divided by its peak capacity.

If a 10-megawatt solar array averages output at 1.5 megawatts, its capacity factor is 15 percent. The capacity factor for wind is 30 percent. By comparison, gas and nuclear energy sources have a capacity factors of around 80 percent.

Opposition to Vermont Yankee gained momentum in 2010, when Gov. Peter Shumlin, then Senate president pro tempore, led an effort to prevent the Public Service Board from ruling on Vermont Yankee's application to continue operation. While plant owner Louisiana-based Entergy already had federal approval to continue operation, the company decided to close Yankee, in part due to hostile political winds.

Hardwick Electric Manager Mike Sullivan said he remembers Shumlin saying Vermont could close Yankee because the state didn't need the power.

"(The claim) from the governor and others was, 'We don't need it, we don't need the power,'" Sullivan said. "Well, if we don't need the power, why are we filling it up? Why are we building all these new transmission lines and doing all these other things if we didn't need it?"

Sullivan said he didn't support Yankee's closing because it provided low-cost power.

"My beef is, Vermont Yankee said we'll sell you our power, 600 megawatts or most of the state's needs at peak, if not all then most of the time, for 4 cents a kilowatt hour," he said. "Dirt cheap, and they basically told the utilities don't buy their power, don't sign an agreement, don't mess with them, they are out of here."

According to Sullivan, natural gas for heating takes priority during Vermont's many cold spells. This causes the otherwise very cheap energy — around 4 cents per kilowatt hour — to spike.

Hallquist said the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline would boost capacity during cold spells, when everyone uses gas for heat.

"(The pipeline) is to address the congestion issues," he said. "Now, there are natural gas tankers and there's oil set aside to deal with those congestion issues."

Green Mountain Power spokesperson Dorothy Schnure said the Colchester-based utility's power purchase contracts have been lengthy enough to be unaffected by the Yankee's closure. However, Schnure and Sullivan both said that when their organizations buy market power, a portion of that is natural gas.

Beth Parent, communications manager for Vermont Gas Systems, says natural gas offers heating for over 50,000 families, businesses and institutions in Franklin and Chittenden Counties. She added that 14 percent of Vermont families and businesses use natural gas as a primary heating source.

Contact Michael Bielawski at mbielawski at watchdog.org
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Michael Bielawski
A Seton Hall 2005 graduate, Michael has been writing freelance articles for various publications in and around New York City, Seoul in South Korea, upstate NY and Vermont for ten years. He currently is a staff writer at the Hardwick Gazette keeping track of rising school budgets and other rural Vermont issues. He likes best to write about health, economics, and geopolitics generally looking for angles not seen in mainstream media. At home he's very busy looking after two little boys and during free time loves to watch Stanley Kubrick films off Netflix.

--------
Note: This post has been updated with a correction. To replace Vermont Yankee, we would need to build 1,800 MW of wind, not 1,800,000 MW, as first printed. (It's that old MW, KW thing again.)

Bielawski has other guest posts on this blog, most recently Grid Upgrades, Siting Rule Changes for Vermont, in February 2016

Two earlier posts at this blog described the replacement of Vermont Yankee power by natural gas power: Vermont Yankee Was Replaced by Natural Gas: Doing the Numbers, on January 2, and The Replacement for Vermont Yankee Was Natural Gas: Guest Post by Mike Twomey on January 7

Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-47094242913457859732016-03-26T13:24:00.000-04:002016-03-26T13:24:10.762-04:00State Control of Decommissioning Funds is a Bad Idea. Guest Post by Richard January

Vermont State House
The Golden Dome is always after more gold

I read with some concern a news report about a handful of Vermont and Massachusetts members of Congress pushing for more state control over U.S. nuclear plant decommissioning.

As a retired nuclear engineer who sat at many state of Vermont public hearings regarding Vermont Yankee, the idea of giving states control over decommissioning fills me with dread. Vermont's state energy officials routinely lose control of the microphone to shouting agitators. Many of the "experts" testifying about nuclear safety clearly lack knowledge in depth — a fact apparent to every nuclear professional in the audience, although not necessarily to the presiding state officials.

Although at least two senior state scientists who routinely address these meetings are competent to testify, the general impression I get from state of Vermont officialdom is an anti-nuclear bias and a shaky grasp of the hard and applied science of safe nuclear power plant decommissioning.

In short, I don't want the state of Vermont, or any state for that matter, minding the store. I much prefer continued oversight by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which for decades has ensured the safe operation of the nation's fleet of nuclear power plants.

Also, unlike the NRC, Vermont is cash-strapped and forever seeking new funding from Vermont Yankee. In this environment, can we rest easy knowing that all of the state's decisions would be driven solely by safety, and not by the desire for one more infusion of Vermont Yankee cash? I'm skeptical.

Richard January

-------

Richard January recently retired from his position as Senior Lead Engineer at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. His 42 year career started at Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation designing new fossil and nuclear plants. He worked 35 years at Vermont Yankee.

January has had several guest posts at this blog. The most recent was Fear-mongering delays decomm, in June 2015.

___________

 In order to understand January's guest post, readers need to know that Vermont and other states are lobbying for the NRC to "tighten its rule-making" for decommissioning, as described in this article by Mike Faher at VTDigger. State claims it could be left with big bills for Yankee Cleanup. The Faher article also appeared on the front page of my local newspaper, the Valley News.

I personally wouldn't say that the state wants to "tighten the rule-making." I would say that the state wants to "get some money." The state wants, among other things, continued funding for emergency planning, even after the plant is shut down. They also want SAFSTOR to be allowed for only 10 years, not sixty, and other expensive changes about dry cask storage. These expensive changes would be funded by the plant, by the NRC increasing the decomm funding requirements.

As January points out, the state of Vermont is perpetually strapped for cash. Last-minute budget deals in the statehouse supposedly balance the ever-expanding state budget. Losing Vermont Yankee funding for the Clean Energy Development Fund and for emergency planning--this undoubtedly hurt the state's financial situation. (Maybe Vermont should have thought of this earlier, when the governor was leading the chorus of "Shut It Down.") In my simplistic opinion, the state doesn't want oversight: it wants money. As January said:  the idea of giving states control over decommissioning fills me with dread.

Indeed it does.

Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-983961754266399592016-03-09T16:01:00.001-05:002016-03-09T16:01:35.393-05:00The Oddness at the Heart of RTO

RTO graphic from FERC

Regional Transmission Organizations

Tomorrow, I will be at the ISO-NE Consumer Liaison Group meeting in Connecticut. (I blogged about this meeting a few days ago.)

I would like to share my research, and my feelings, about the deep oddness at the heart of American RTO markets. RTO (Regional Transmission Organization) markets are those in which electricity generators (power plants, etc) and electricity transmitters (transmission and distribution companies) are generally different companies. The different types of companies interact by participating in complex auction processes. In contrast, non-RTO markets contain (mostly) vertically integrated utilities. In non-RTO areas, usually the same companies are in charge of both generation and distribution.

I recently wrote an article for Nuclear Engineering International magazine "Pay for Performance on the U.S. Grid." This article shows how the supposedly cost-saving auctions have diverged farther and farther from anything resembling a free market. It also shows how the RTO markets basically punish reliable plants, and support unreliable plants.

In this figure, based on Entergy research, we see that nuclear plants get around 85% of their revenue from selling kWh, (energy) while gas plants get 40% to 80% of their revenue from other sources (capacity payments, ancillary services payments.) In this figure, based on information from James Bride of Energy Tariff Experts, we see how Capacity Payments make up the revenues for gas peaker plants. (I don't own the figures, so I have to link to them.)

If gas plants had to subsist on the prices they received for energy, if gas plants main income was the money they receive for selling kWh on the grid, it would be much harder for gas plants to undercut nuclear pricing!

I encourage you to look at the figures and read the article. My article has a reasonable title: Pay for Performance and the U.S. Grid. When I think about it, I refer to it as The Oddness at the Heart of RTO.

RTOs don't even save money

Well, all those complicated auctions were supposed to prevent big nasty integrated electricity companies from ripping off consumers. (The companies would rip off consumers after they had "captured" their regulators, of course.) So, did it work? Did the the RTO auctions and free markets lower prices for electricity? I would argue that RTOs are not really free markets anyway (read my article), but in the meantime....did RTOs save money for the customers?

Well, no. Or maybe yes, maybe no.

Here's another chart, this one is part of a paper prepared for NESCOE, New England States Committee on Electricity, which "represents the collective perspective of the six New England governors in regional electricity matters." The paper was published in December, 2015. "Electric Restructuring in New England--A Look Back" prepared by Reishus Consulting LLC.

From a study at UC Berkeley, as reported in NESCOE review

This is a chart of retail prices over time. Note that the Restructured States (RTOs) have the highest prices for retail electricity. Yes. That's the red line at the top of the chart.

It must be added, however, that the Reishus Consulting paper also describes other studies that claim to find lowered retail electricity costs due to restructuring. I would say that the statement that "RTOs save money for consumers" is not currently proven, to my satisfaction, and it looks as if they don't. After all, that top cost line is the restructured (RTO) states.

The effect of RTOs

In short, RTOs may or may not save money for consumers. My opinion: probably they don't.

Undoubtedly, however, RTOs make to make it harder for reliable plants to survive, and easier for unreliable plants.

All the nuclear plants that are in danger of closing are in RTO areas.Meredith Angwinhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-57877447379517875732016-03-06T13:42:00.001-05:002016-03-07T16:42:34.270-05:00Trespassing At Vermont Yankee

Clay Turnbull
Photo by Meredith Angwin from post in 2010

A Trespassing Incident

On March 4, long-time anti-nuclear activist Clay Turnbull was cited for trespassing at Vermont Yankee. Turnbull is a trustee and staffer at the New England Coalition (NECN), a long-time antinuclear group that has been fighting Vermont Yankee for decades.

According to a Mike Faher article on the incident, Vermont Yankee security summoned the sheriff's department because a "man with a camera was within the perimeter hiding along the inside fence line." Turnbull claims he was not hiding, but merely crouching down to take photos. Turnbull wanted to take pictures of the proposed dry cask storage area, to show it was more visible than Entergy claims.

Turnbull also claims that he did not know he was on Vermont Yankee property, since he had not crossed a fence. Turnbull also asserts that he has been on the site numerous times, and is "quite familiar" with the site.

Turnbull was not a lone wolf at the site. He was alone, but he had been sent to Vermont Yankee by his organization. In an article by Robert Audette at the Brattleboro Reformer, Ray Shadis of the New England Coalition said that he was unsatisfied with existing pictures of the proposed dry cask storage area. Shadis said: "Clay got some photos at about 200 feet, through the old switchyard, which we assume will be gone with decommissioning, showing plainly that what Dodson (of Entergy) said was fiction. I asked Clay to return to see if there were clear views from any other vantage points along the fence. Apparently Yankee now features multiple lines of fence."

So, a man is sent by his organization to take pictures at Vermont Yankee. The man claims to be very familiar with the site, and also completely unaware that he is trespassing.

Vermont Yankee Reacts

Well, Vermont Yankee reacted at the time of the trespass. Spokesman Marty Cohn was quoted in the Faher article at VTDigger: Cohn said that Turnbull's actions put the plant into a high-security alert. By the nature of security and security alerts, Cohn could not elaborate much more on the plant's reaction to the trespasser.

Meredith Reacts

In some ways, this whole incident is just plain funny. In other ways, not so funny. These are grown men in an anti-nuclear organization. As part of their role in that organization, one of them tells the other to get better pictures. Their actions cause a security alert.

This is not about a little boy trying to get down to the river to do some fishing. This is not about a casual trespass. This action was discussed and planned, within the organization.

Meredith Makes a Suggestion

My suggestion is as follows. On the day that Turnbull is found guilty of trespass, even if he gets nothing but a reprimand---on that day, Entergy should sue the New England Coalition for the expenses caused by the security alert. Entergy shouldn't sue for punitive damages or anything like that. That would look mean. Entergy should just sue for compensatory damages for the extra expenses caused by the alert. At the same time, Entergy should ask for a restraining order against members of NECN approaching Entergy property.

I mean, the people from NECN admit that there was an organizational plan, discussed between two members of the organization, to take these pictures. Turnbull admits to being very familiar with Vermont Yankee. Then he trespassed. In my opinion, Vermont Yankee has both the law and the facts on their side, and they should bring suit.

NECN should absolutely pay the cost of the security alert.
-----

A Little About the Two Players

In the section above, I mention Ray Shadis and Clay Turnbull. Their names have appeared before in this blog.

In a blog post a few days ago, I shared a quote from Ray Shadis, a quote that originally appeared in the Rutland Herald. In this quote, Shadis suggested that Entergy should buy a gravel pit across town from the plant, and store spent fuel underground at that gravel pit.

Clay Turnbull has also appeared in this blog. In a post last year, Opponents Claim That Vermont Yankee is More Dangerous Than Ever, I quote Turnbull. He had written that, although the NRC plans no further meetings in Brattleboro after February 2015, "Each time Entergy requests a licence amendment or exemption from regulations is an opportunity for the public to challenge that action with all parties under oath..."

Update: This post has been reprinted at The Energy Collective. It currently has five comments at that site. The Energy Collective usually has more comments than I receive on this blog.

Meredith Angwinhttp://email@example.com


text:
I want to generate a list of all functions in a shell script (a shell script function library that I am sourcing). Currently, I am experimenting with typeset in ways such as the following:
typeset -f
typeset -F
typeset -F | awk -F"declare -f " '{print $2}' | grep -v '_'
A difficulty I am having is that some functions which are not in the function library are listed and I don't know how to excise these from the function listing or how to generate the function listing in a better way. I would welcome any ideas you may have on this.
A bonus would be to generate a function listing in the order in which the functions appear in the shell script.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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At first the lights didn't work. Then all of a sudden they did and they are beautiful!!


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The microbrew is making headway into Michelin-starred manses.
While jumping on the cloud bandwagon might help save on upfront expenditure, the ZDNet Techbizz panel in Mumbai discusses whether the cost of additional licenses when scaling up can outweigh the benefits.
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Oxfam's CIO David Horner spoke about the technology delivering NFPs greater transparency, accountability, and community engagement.
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text:
Dalai Lama quotes (Head of the Dge-lugs-pa order of Tibetan Buddhists, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, b.1935)
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Jim Valvano quotes (American basketball coach, Coach of North Carolina State U., 1980-1990; won NCAA championship, 1983 1946-1993)
Dave Barry quotes (American Writer and Humorist best known for his weekly newspaper column. b.1947)
Albert Camus quotes (French Novelist, Essayist and Playwright, 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1913-1960)