Energy News

This ought to give you a sense of the kind of confidence Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of the French nuclear giant Areva, has: Her company signed an agreement to develop a new nuclear reactor in Fremont, Calif. in April. It's illegal to build a new nuclear reactor in California. "There is no solution without nuclear power," Lauvergeon declared during a visit to Forbes' offices on Friday. Of the California law: "One way or another, it will change," she said.

With regard to our energy independence, the BP oil disaster should be a call to action. Everyone knows we are dependent on fossil fuels coming from foreign sources yet; no one to date has the will to do anything serious and credible about it. Nuclear energy is the Holy Grail of clean, safe and affordable energy that America can produce and exploit without detriment to the environment.

The nuclear industry is in rebirth mode. Plants are breaking ground in the South. Big companies are talking about new designs. President Barack Obama says they can be a key tool in the fight against global warming, and some environmentalists agree.

"Word travels very fast among students, and they are very interested in the nuclear engineering field as well as the job opportunities," said Jack Brenizer, chair of the nuclear engineering department at Pennsylvania State University, which this week was awarded a share of $38 million in research grants from the Department of Energy.

"Our new website makes it easy for Pennsylvania's commercial energy users to navigate the competitive energy market," said David I. Fein, vice president of Constellation Energy and director of retail energy policy. "We developed this site to help those customers currently shopping for electricity and entering the competitive marketplace as rate caps expire throughout the rest of the state at the end of the year. On the website, businesses and other customers can learn about how the competitive marketplace works, find information on seminars and webinars, and also obtain a no-obligation quote to compare prices."

Harry Reid has called for an "energy bill" by July. But it's not the energy bill we've been waiting for. It not only lacks a price on carbon, but as Brad Plumer explains, it makes it harder to ever get one:

IDAHO FALLS - Senator Mike Crapo visited Idaho Falls this afternoon. Crapo told a crowd at the Idaho Falls ISU campus that he is currently seeking a national nuclear summit. He supports Preisdent Obama's decision to open up drilling on the Atlantic Coast but says the president's proposal doesn't go far enough. "We need to have nuclear power be a major part of our national energy policy and today it is not. The potential of nuclear power is phenomenal," said Crapo.

Try to get an oil refinery, liquefied natural gas terminal, transmission line or even a wind farm cited and built anywhere in the United States, and good luck. The not-in-my-backyard syndrome still casts a shadow over most big energy projects. But it's no longer much of a problem for nuclear power.

A majority of Americans have typically favored using nuclear power to provide electricity for the United States since Gallup began asking about this topic in 1994. Support has edged up in the last two years, eclipsing 60% this year for the first time. In addition, 28% of Americans now say they "strongly favor" nuclear power, also the highest Gallup has measured since the question was first asked in 1994.

Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers sees an opportunity in the recession to align environmental, energy and economic interests and allow the nation to deal with all three problems simultaneously.

The majority of Americans who favor nuclear-generated electricity hit a new high this year, according to a poll on Monday that suggests growing support for President Barack Obama's aid to the nuclear industry.

Mr. Chu talked with Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. The article contains edited excerpts of that conversation.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced selections for the award of approximately $40 million in total to two teams led by Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Co. and San Diego-based General Atomics for conceptual design and planning work for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP).

Thomas Sanders, president of the 10,500-member American Nuclear Society, visited Charlotte this week. Sanders is manager of the Global Nuclear Future Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. He's also co-founder of the American Council on Global Nuclear Competitiveness, a nonprofit that promotes growth of the U.S. nuclear industry. He spoke with energy-environment reporter Bruce Henderson. His comments were edited for clarity and brevity.

Nuclear energy is worth pursuing, wind and solar are good but have limitations, and the government is putting minuscule amounts of money into energy R&D dollars. So says software tycoon turned philanthropist Bill Gates, who launched his Gates Notes Web site on Wednesday to share his big-picture ideas on big topics. High on his list is energy and environment, an area where he's already taken lots of notes.