2 NRC appointments said to be near
Peter Behr, E&E reporter
>>> >Industry sources expect the Obama administration soon to appoint
>>> former Energy Department official William Magwood IV and
>>> Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor George Apostolakis
>>> to vacancies on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
>>> >
>>> >Apostolakis, a professor in MIT's Department of Nuclear Science
>>> and Engineering, is a member and former chairman of NRC's Advisory
>>> Committee on Reactor Safeguards and an expert in complex risk and
>>> reliability analysis.
>>> >
>>> >Magwood was the federal government's senior nuclear technology
>>> official, serving in the Energy Department under former presidents
>>> Clinton and George W. Bush before leaving government in 2005. He is
>>> a principal with the energy consultancy Advanced Energy Strategies.
>>> The two, if confirmed by the Senate, would complete the roster of
>>> the five-member NRC as the commission faces pivotal questions about
>>> the future of nuclear power.
>>> >
>>> >The NRC is reviewing 17 applications for combined operating
>>> licenses for 26 new reactors and four advanced reactor designs.
>>> >
>>> >Apostolakis and Magwood have been mentioned as leading candidates
>>> for the NRC vacancies for several months. But Magwood's appointment
>>> may been delayed by opposition from anti-nuclear and environmental
>>> groups, expressed in an Aug. 3 letter to President Obama and
>>> congressional leaders.
>>> >
>>> >"Mr. Magwood's background, experience, and apparent key interests
>>> are in the realm of nuclear power's promotion, not its regulation to
>>> protect public health, safety and the environment," the letter said.
>>> The groups also cited a comment by Magwood in a ClimateWire article
>>> in May about the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in
>>> which Magwood said that European officials who have visited the
>>> isolated site in Nevada "wonder why we're having this argument"
>>> (ClimateWire, May 11).
>>> >
>>> >Paul Gunter, an official of the Beyond Nuclear organization, one
>>> of the letter signers, said the two new NRC appointments "are
>>> critical in terms of balancing the decision-making agency affecting
>>> both the financial condition of the industry and the public health
>>> and safety. We've seen all too often that a heavy- handed commission
>>> can shift to protect and promote the industry in spite of its own
>>> regulations and enforcement requirements."
>>> >
>>> >Industry officials responded that the appointments of Magwood and
>>> Apostolakis would not assure two more commission votes for new
>>> nuclear reactor projects, but would give developers a fair
>>> opportunity to make their case. "I think they would be going in with
>>> open minds," said one industry source who is not a spokesman for his
>>> company. "They would be put there because they're fair and balanced.
>>> If an application is worthy, there's no predisposition there against
>>> the idea of new reactors."
>>> >Magwood: A 'candid discussion' about nuclear is needed
>>> >
>>> >Magwood co-authored an article in January, styled as an open
>>> letter to Obama as president-elect, saying that "a candid
>>> discussion is needed -- within your new administration and in the
>>> country as a whole -- about nuclear energy, a non-climate-changing
>>> power source that is actually capable of generating significant
>>> amounts of energy in the near term. The key to making nuclear
>>> energy a more viable alternative is the adoption of advanced spent-
>>> fuel recycling techniques to deal with one of nuclear power's most
>>> vexing problems -- the presence of radioactive waste material."
>>> >
>>> >He said that nuclear energy "is not a cure-all. ... While it has
>>> clear benefits, nuclear power has its costs and its hazards, as do
>>> all forms of large-scale energy generation." Ultimately, he
>>> continued, "a major storage facility will be needed."
>>> >
>>> >On another front, environmental and anti-nuclear organizations
>>> continued to criticize a Senate proposal to create a "green bank"
>>> called the "Clean Energy Deployment Administration" (CEDA),
>>> authorized to provide federal loan guarantees to advanced energy
>>> technologies. The House-passed climate bill spells out that no
>>> single technology could receive more than 30 percent of the total
>>> loan guarantee portfolio.
>>> >
>>> >Taxpayers for Common Sense protested that the bill passed in July
>>> by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee "places no
>>> limit on the amount of loan guarantees CEDA can distribute. If the
>>> bill moves forward, taxpayers could easily lose billions in
>>> defaulted loan guarantees and other forms of credit."
>>> >
>>> >The Congressional Budget Office reported on Sept. 30 that based
>>> on the number of applications from nuclear power developers
>>> currently filed with the Energy Department, nuclear project loan
>>> guarantees could exceed $100 billion over the next 10 years, and
>>> that an additional $1 billion would have to be spent by Congress
>>> to cover an anticipated shortfall in loan fees paid by developers.
>>> >
>>> >Ellen Vancko, nuclear and climate change manager of the Union of
>>> Concerned Scientists, said, "The CBO report underscores several
>>> critical problems with the Senate CEDA bill. Most alarmingly, it
>>> would remove existing statutory limits on the amount of loan
>>> guarantees DOE could offer, providing the most expensive energy
>>> technologies with potentially unlimited access to loans
>>> underwritten by the U.S. taxpayer."
>>> >
>>> >Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt, who
>>> heads the Coalition for the Green Bank, suggested in an interview
>>> that a ceiling be set on the maximum loan guarantee exposure. "A
>>> good answer probably is to have in the statute a maximum cap on
>>> the amount of leverage. If Congress capitalizes the bank at $10
>>> billion, they should write in ... you can never guarantee more
>>> than 10 times that $10 billion," Hundt said.
>>> >
>>> >Industry sources expect the Obama administration soon to appoint
>>> former Energy Department official William Magwood IV and
>>> Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor George Apostolakis
>>> to vacancies on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
>>> >
>>> >Apostolakis, a professor in MIT's Department of Nuclear Science
>>> and Engineering, is a member and former chairman of NRC's Advisory
>>> Committee on Reactor Safeguards and an expert in complex risk and
>>> reliability analysis.
>>> >
>>> >Magwood was the federal government's senior nuclear technology
>>> official, serving in the Energy Department under former presidents
>>> Clinton and George W. Bush before leaving government in 2005. He is
>>> a principal with the energy consultancy Advanced Energy Strategies.
>>> The two, if confirmed by the Senate, would complete the roster of
>>> the five-member NRC as the commission faces pivotal questions about
>>> the future of nuclear power.
>>> >
>>> >The NRC is reviewing 17 applications for combined operating
>>> licenses for 26 new reactors and four advanced reactor designs.
>>> >
>>> >Apostolakis and Magwood have been mentioned as leading candidates
>>> for the NRC vacancies for several months. But Magwood's appointment
>>> may been delayed by opposition from anti-nuclear and environmental
>>> groups, expressed in an Aug. 3 letter to President Obama and
>>> congressional leaders.
>>> >
>>> >"Mr. Magwood's background, experience, and apparent key interests
>>> are in the realm of nuclear power's promotion, not its regulation to
>>> protect public health, safety and the environment," the letter said.
>>> The groups also cited a comment by Magwood in a ClimateWire article
>>> in May about the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in
>>> which Magwood said that European officials who have visited the
>>> isolated site in Nevada "wonder why we're having this argument"
>>> (ClimateWire, May 11).
>>> >
>>> >Paul Gunter, an official of the Beyond Nuclear organization, one
>>> of the letter signers, said the two new NRC appointments "are
>>> critical in terms of balancing the decision-making agency affecting
>>> both the financial condition of the industry and the public health
>>> and safety. We've seen all too often that a heavy- handed commission
>>> can shift to protect and promote the industry in spite of its own
>>> regulations and enforcement requirements."
>>> >
>>> >Industry officials responded that the appointments of Magwood and
>>> Apostolakis would not assure two more commission votes for new
>>> nuclear reactor projects, but would give developers a fair
>>> opportunity to make their case. "I think they would be going in with
>>> open minds," said one industry source who is not a spokesman for his
>>> company. "They would be put there because they're fair and balanced.
>>> If an application is worthy, there's no predisposition there against
>>> the idea of new reactors."
>>> >Magwood: A 'candid discussion' about nuclear is needed
>>> >
>>> >Magwood co-authored an article in January, styled as an open
>>> letter to Obama as president-elect, saying that "a candid
>>> discussion is needed -- within your new administration and in the
>>> country as a whole -- about nuclear energy, a non-climate-changing
>>> power source that is actually capable of generating significant
>>> amounts of energy in the near term. The key to making nuclear
>>> energy a more viable alternative is the adoption of advanced spent-
>>> fuel recycling techniques to deal with one of nuclear power's most
>>> vexing problems -- the presence of radioactive waste material."
>>> >
>>> >He said that nuclear energy "is not a cure-all. ... While it has
>>> clear benefits, nuclear power has its costs and its hazards, as do
>>> all forms of large-scale energy generation." Ultimately, he
>>> continued, "a major storage facility will be needed."
>>> >
>>> >On another front, environmental and anti-nuclear organizations
>>> continued to criticize a Senate proposal to create a "green bank"
>>> called the "Clean Energy Deployment Administration" (CEDA),
>>> authorized to provide federal loan guarantees to advanced energy
>>> technologies. The House-passed climate bill spells out that no
>>> single technology could receive more than 30 percent of the total
>>> loan guarantee portfolio.
>>> >
>>> >Taxpayers for Common Sense protested that the bill passed in July
>>> by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee "places no
>>> limit on the amount of loan guarantees CEDA can distribute. If the
>>> bill moves forward, taxpayers could easily lose billions in
>>> defaulted loan guarantees and other forms of credit."
>>> >
>>> >The Congressional Budget Office reported on Sept. 30 that based
>>> on the number of applications from nuclear power developers
>>> currently filed with the Energy Department, nuclear project loan
>>> guarantees could exceed $100 billion over the next 10 years, and
>>> that an additional $1 billion would have to be spent by Congress
>>> to cover an anticipated shortfall in loan fees paid by developers.
>>> >
>>> >Ellen Vancko, nuclear and climate change manager of the Union of
>>> Concerned Scientists, said, "The CBO report underscores several
>>> critical problems with the Senate CEDA bill. Most alarmingly, it
>>> would remove existing statutory limits on the amount of loan
>>> guarantees DOE could offer, providing the most expensive energy
>>> technologies with potentially unlimited access to loans
>>> underwritten by the U.S. taxpayer."
>>> >
>>> >Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt, who
>>> heads the Coalition for the Green Bank, suggested in an interview
>>> that a ceiling be set on the maximum loan guarantee exposure. "A
>>> good answer probably is to have in the statute a maximum cap on
>>> the amount of leverage. If Congress capitalizes the bank at $10
>>> billion, they should write in ... you can never guarantee more
>>> than 10 times that $10 billion," Hundt said.
>>> >