Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

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Virginia Nuclear Energy Summit Report

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VA Nuclear Energy Summit Jefferson Hotel, Richmond. June 6, 2016
VA Nuclear Energy Summit
Jefferson Hotel, Richmond. June 6, 2016

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium (VNEC) hosted a half day summit in Richmond on Monday, June 6 for government officials and industry leaders from the fields of research, education, power generation, defense, and security to discuss the role and value of nuclear energy in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The governor and legislature of the Commonwealth of Virginia have stated that they want the state’s nuclear sector to grow so that it can contribute to expanding employment opportunities and to a clean energy future.

Maurice Jones, Virginia’s Commerce Secretary, set the tone for the meeting with strong words of encouragement. He brought greetings from Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), saying he was “delighted” that the summit was taking place.

He “expects that Virginia will be the leading global entity when it comes to the nuclear space and jobs in the nuclear industry.”

He emphasized the fact that four reactors supply 35-40% of the electricity consumed in Virginia. e state has companies like Bechtel, BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT), Huntington Industries (NYSE:HII), AREVA and Dominion (NYSE:D) employing thousands of people at high paying jobs. There is a large base of suppliers supporting these companies.

Jones gave the specific example that Dominion’s two nuclear plant sites, North Anna and Surry, each employ close to 1,000 workers with average pay exceeding $80,000.

The numbers were verified from the audience by Bill Murray, Dominion’s managing director of corporate public policy.

Looking to the future, he noted that nuclear energy will remain important and that the state will need an additional 4 GW of electricity by the early 2020s.

He expects that nuclear will play a central role, and he asked for the industry’s help in making sure that happens.

Sec. Jones said the governor has studies in hand that indicate that the global nuclear energy market will reach nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.

Gov. McAuliffe has said he wants Virginia to capture its share of the jobs involved in supplying that market.

“Make sure that we are preparing the workers needed to do the work in a 700-800 billion dollar global industry…We’ve got to make sure that we have the critical mass of people to do the work in this space…There’s some urgency about this. This growth is in the next ten years.”

Jones’s final point was the importance of the growing demand for zero-emitting energy, including nuclear. He invited the industry to work with the government on a “branding journey” to combat “other issues” in the public’s mind.

He stated that nuclear energy is “one of the tools that we have available and Virginia is already a leader. We need to make sure that people know this is one source (of clean power).”

Nuke Degrees at State Colleges

After he gave his kick-off speech, Secretary Jones left the meeting. Had he stayed, he would have heard a number of messages about workforce development and education.

There are two Virginia universities, Virginia Commonwealth and Virginia Tech, offering nuclear engineering degree programs.

Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon, the head of VCU’s program, provided a brief summary. VCU’s program is nine years old, has five full-time faculty members, is growing rapidly, has about 100 undergraduates and 60-80 graduate students, and offers a summer study abroad program in Dresden, Germany, that provides students the opportunity to operate a reactor for experiments.

Dr. Bilbao noted that her program is attracting excited, high quality students, but seemed concerned that they might graduate but not be able to find the kinds of job opportunities they’re expecting.

That’s a possibility if the industry delays hiring or investments in growth.

Virginia Tech began offering nuclear engineering degrees in 2013. It has 3.5 faculty members and does not offer an undergraduate degree.

Dr. Alireza Haghighat, head of nuclear engineering at VA Tech, stated the need to invest in facilities like a research reactor and its associated laboratories in order to attract high quality research professors and students.

Though the University of Virginia (UVA) no longer offers a nuclear engineering degree, Dr. Sean Agnew noted that there are several engineering programs of interest to the nuclear industry.

He also reported that UVA has a strong public policy program. Students have expressed strong interest in energy as a potential minor.

They’re paying close attention to the worldwide interest in clean energy and energy diplomacy.

Dr. Agnew said there is a major need for Virginia nuclear interests to ensure that their vital technology is well-represented in the policy discussions.

Skilled Technicians Needed

Central Virginia Community College’s William Sandidge reported that his school has a work-study program with AREVA that produces 9 graduates per year with an associate’s degree in nuclear technology. That is the only community college degree program in the state.

One panel focused on technical careers that need specialized training but not four-year degrees. Participants emphasized the need to start early to attract students into fields like manufacturing, health physics and electrical power technology that are not offen at the top of career lists for guidance counselors.

Nat Marshall from BWXT and the Virginia Board of Workforce Development suggested that Manufacturing Technician 1 certification programs would be valuable for prospective employees.

Jim Hunter from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers described apprenticeship pipelines as having plenty of capacity, but reminding the employers in the room that such programs are incomplete if there is no job at the end.

GE-Hitachi’s Kim Bankston stated that her company is planning for the new skilled technicians that will be required to support ESBWR and Prism manufacturing.

Marshall Cohen, the VNEC Executive Director, asked representatives from Newport News and BWXT if Virginia suppliers could take advantage of proximity to Nuclear Navy facilities. Bob Granata responded that the aircraft carrier supplier base included representation from 48 of the 50 states.

Several large companies representatives reminded the audience that Virginia is not the only place where nuclear has a strong base from which to grow.

There is abundant competition, an opportunity to reduce wasteful duplication by sharing best practices and a need to focus on core competencies.

Maria Korsnick, the Chief Operating Officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute, was one of the final speakers of the day.

She described the industry’s initiative to reduce operating costs by 30% so that it can deliver the nuclear promise of cost effective clean power.

An important component of the effort is helping policy makers understand and reward the value of nuclear in terms of grid stability, clean power and fuel diversity.

Note: The above article was originally published in Fuel Cycle Week issue number 665 on June 9, 2016. It is republished here with permission.

Exelon’s Chris Crane blames lawmakers for his plant closure announcements

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A few minutes ago, Exelon employees received an email from Chris Crane, the company CEO, announcing the company’s decision to permanently close three nuclear reactors that each produce 7-8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year without dumping a molecule of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Even though the company reported 2015 after-tax earnings of approximately $2.3 billion on total revenue of $30 billion, it has decided that it cannot afford to wait for the next high price part of the natural gas price cycle.

As a reminder to readers, a population that I hope includes several betrayed employees of the three severely threatened units, here is a graph of the price of natural gas to electric utilities since 2002.

NatGasMonthly2002-2016

As the chart shows, natural gas prices are about as predictable as mid-Atlantic weather in the spring. “If you don’t like it, wait a while; it’ll change.”

In any commodity, especially one based on a limited natural resource and has heavy capital investment requirements, the sure cure for an extended period of low prices is an investment-constrained reduction in supply combined with a price-driven increase in demand. There seems to be little doubt that natural gas prices have a lot more room to go up than to go down.

Though I have no direct insight into Exelon’s decision making processes or even into its specific plant financials, I can only guess that they had no real desire to keep Clinton and Quad-Cities operating. There is no other logical explanation for conditioning their decision on prompt action by a notoriously gridlocked legislature, especially when the desired action was guaranteed to be about as popular as a skunk at an outdoor wedding.

How many voters relish the notion of providing cash subsidies to corporations reporting after tax profits greater than a couple of billion dollars? Even when marketed as a job-saving move, there are just too few people who have close relationships with nuclear workers. Nuclear plant employees tend to be concentrated in small towns and can, quite frankly, be a target of envy among people who are working at much lower paying jobs with fewer benefits.

My question to all of the executives that are making plant closure decisions is why are the “uneconomic” plants being closed instead of being marketed to willing buyers?

There is a good Econ 201 case that can be made for closing down marginal production capacity in an oversupplied market, but when the assets being closed are described by the owner as some of their most cost effective production sources there is room to question motives.

If the only customers considered capable of purchasing the plants are the few companies that are already in the club of nuclear plant operating companies, then the closure decisions begin to look like coordinated action to restrain trade. Though enforcement of anti-trust laws has been sadly lacking in the US in recent years, this might be a time for responsible investigatory agencies to ask some hard questions.

Here is a quoted copy of the email that Mr. Crane distributed.

June 2, 2016

Exelon to Retire Clinton and Quad Cities Plants

Dear Colleagues,

It is with deep disappointment that I share with you our announcement today that Exelon will move forward to shut down the Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants, given the lack of progress on Illinois energy legislation.

Over the past two years, we have informed you about the financial challenges facing these plants, and we have worked to find a sustainable path forward in consultation with federal regulators, market operators, state policymakers, plant community leaders, labor and business leaders, as well as environmental groups and other stakeholders.

While the Illinois legislative session has not ended, the path forward for the Next Generation Energy Plan legislation is not clear. As a result, Exelon has begun taking necessary steps to shut down the two nuclear facilities, including making required notifications to the appropriate regulatory bodies, and stopping capital investments for long-term operation of the plants. Clinton will close on June 1, 2017, and Quad Cities will close on June 1, 2018. Quad Cities and Clinton have lost a combined $800 million in the past seven years, despite being two of Exelon’s best-performing plants.

This decision has been a difficult one for our 1,500 employees at both plants and the surrounding communities. I want to extend my sincere thanks to every employee at both Clinton and Quad who, despite the challenges we faced, continued to perform at the highest levels to ensure the safety and reliability of the plants. Your commitment in your day-to-day work and your outpouring of support for legislative policy solutions are very much appreciated.

As leadership has been communicating to employees at both sites, we will do all that we can to support employees in preparation for this transition. Employees will continue to operate the facilities until the retirement dates, with staff transitions expected within six months after retirement. In recognition of the severe impact the closures will have on the host communities for the sites, we also will partner with local civic leaders to prepare.

We will continue to work with stakeholders on passing the Next Generation Energy Plan that is critical to the state’s environment and economy. We will work with policymakers and other stakeholders to advance an all-of-the-above strategy to promote zero-carbon energy, create and preserve clean-energy jobs, establish a more equitable utility rate structure and give customers more control over their bills.

Thank you to those employees who took action and participated in the Springfield rally, or called or emailed your legislators. Our work to ensure that nuclear power is properly valued for its economic and environmental benefits is far from over. I ask that you continue to follow this issue as we work to bring about market and policy changes. For now, please reach out to lawmakers by calling (844) 334-1740 and leave a voicemail saying what these plant closures mean to employees, their family members and the plant communities.

Sincerely,

Chris Crane

Note: I just noticed one more thing in Exelon’s financials worth mentioning. In 2015, the company reported a non-operating income of -$46 M, down from $455 reported in 2014. Normally that line in an income statement is reporting investment or asset transaction income. What it tells me is that the net difference in non operating income during a single year ~$600 M was nearly the same as the reported unsustainable “losses” for operating the three reactors over the past seven years of unusually low natural gas prices.

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Atomic Show #188 – Wheeler and Harding discuss ANS Utility Working Conference

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