Most of you are well aware that Entergy recently announced it will permanently close its Vermont Yankee (VY) nuclear plant. The primary reasons given were continued low natural gas prices, the cost of post-Fukushima upgrades, and "flaws" in the local wholesale electricity market that suppress prices and harm the profitability of baseload facilities like VY. VY was close to breaking even this year, as well as the last few years, but was projected to become unprofitable in the future-over the next few years, anyway.

From July 7 -12, 16 students from around the country came to Washington DC to talk with politicians and policymakers about nuclear engineering education funding, energy policy, and other nuclear issues as part of the 2013 Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation (NESD). This year the delegation was comprised of students with especially diverse backgrounds, including nuclear engineering, chemical engineering, materials science, and nuclear safeguards policy. The chair of the delegation was Matthew Gidden, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying nuclear engineering and energy policy. He was assisted by two co-vice chairs: Mark Reed of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nicholas Thompson of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The September 2013 edition of the technical journal Nuclear Technology is available electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society member subscribers and others.

The September 2013 edition of the technical journal Fusion Science and Technology is available electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society member subscribers and others.

On September 12, 1933, slightly more than 80 years ago, Leo Szilard was the first person to imagine a reasonable mechanism for releasing the vast quantities of energy known to be stored in atomic nuclei. As it turned out, his concept worked the first time it was tried on December 2, 1942.

The 174th Carnival of Nuclear Energy has been posted at Next Big Future.  You can click here to access this latest version of a long running tradition among the top pro-nuclear bloggers and authors.

The ANS Nuclear Cafe Matinee today visits the Switch Energy Project and its impressive array of interviews with world-class energy experts.

Benoit Forget, associate professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was honored with the 2013 ANS Landis Young Member Engineering Achievement Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement for effectively applying engineering knowledge to yield a new principle, concept, design, safety improvement, method of analysis, or product used in the nuclear energy enterprise.

On August 27, Entergy announced that it plans to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in the fall of 2014, when the plant's current fuel is depleted. Entergy plans to decommission the plant using the SAFSTOR option, which consists of defueling, mothballing the plant for a period, then dismantling it by the end of 60 years. Entergy said that it is closing the plant because it is no longer projected to make money, considering the estimated future natural gas prices. Electric power generated by gas is now over 50 percent of the ISO-New England grid.

Hoffman

In August, the American Nuclear Society conducted a simple 4-question poll on climate change policy. I commissioned this short poll to establish a baseline understanding of our members' views on the general issue and possible policy actions that ANS should consider. The results are in and it is clear that members are ready for ANS to participate in this important policy discussion.

The 173rd Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers is up right now in the Fukushima Commentary section of Leslie Corrice's site "The Hiroshima Syndrome."  You can click here to access this latest edition.

At the birthplace of nuclear energy, one man dares to answer all questions nuclear - Dr. Dave Grabaskas of Argonne National Laboratory.

I had an interesting conversation with some colleagues last night. We were talking about our jobs, and it turned out that some of them were considering moving on to new prospects outside of the nuclear industry. After digging in to the reasons why, the sentiment seemed to come down to "It feels like we're running as hard as we can only to gain inches every day."

The September 2013 edition of the research journal Nuclear Science and Engineering is available both electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society member subscribers and others.

In May 2013, the United States lost a perfectly functional and well-maintained nuclear power plant, the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant. Last week, Entergy announced that it would be shutting down a second such plant, Vermont Yankee, after its current fuel load has been consumed. In both cases, the owners indicated that the plants were no longer economical due to market conditions; namely, the low price of natural gas, the presence of subsidized renewable energy suppliers that can pay the grid to take their power and still receive revenue for every kilowatt-hour generated, and an insufficient market demand for electricity in the markets where the plants were attempting to sell their output.

The 172nd Carnival of Nuclear Energy has been posted at Yes Vermont Yankee.  You can click here to access this latest edition of a long-running tradition among pro-nuclear bloggers.

For faithful viewers of the ANS Nuclear Matinee-an instant classic from not so long ago, starring Microsoft founder, philanthropist, and nuclear energy enthusiast (and investor) Bill Gates.

The American Nuclear Society has published a new book, "Radiochemical Technology in Nuclear Power Plants" by Chien C. Lin, available in hard cover through the ANS store.

"Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station generates 72.5 percent of the state's electricity while emitting no greenhouse gases."

The 171st Carnival of Nuclear Energy is up right now at Atomic Power Review.  You can click here to access this latest edition of a long running tradition among pro-nuclear bloggers.