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Pushing to close the Indian Point nuclear-power plant, some New York lawmakers are arguing that its energy could be replaced without overburdening consumers or threatening power reliability. They’re utterly wrong.

Indian Point is New York’s largest single source of electricity and its largest source of low-carbon energy. The 2,062 megawatts of continuous baseload electricity from the two reactors energizes 30 percent of New York City and Westchester.

To put this in perspective, Indian Point could easily power Boston and Baltimore, with electricity to spare. It provides a huge amount of affordable electricity that would be difficult and costly to replace.

The New York Independent System Operator and other independent authorities have determined that replacing Indian Point would require major electrical-infrastructure upgrades across the state, including new power lines, electrical substations and distribution centers. That, along with buying replacement electricity supplies, would cost billions of dollars and saddle consumers with much higher electricity rates for years.

Needlessly closing an efficient power station would be foolhardy, to say the least — especially one that’s vital to America’s financial capital, employs more than 1,300 people and generates more than $800 million for New York’s economy.

Acquiring new electricity supplies is difficult — and has serious environmental consequences. To replace Indian Point with natural-gas power plants, New York would have to burn enough gas to fill an Empire State Building-size tank 3,415 times and would produce another 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide — greenhouse-gas pollution. Instead of relying on fossil fuels for 47 percent of its electricity, New York would be near 60 percent.

Wind and solar are important, but New Yorkers need electricity 24/7, not just when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. Importing it from other states or Canada would make New York less energy independent and more vulnerable to price swings.

The foes of nuclear energy and Indian Point say their greatest concern is safety. The industry agrees: Safety comes first. Having compiled 3,500 combined reactor-years of operating experience at more than 100 reactors, our safety record is excellent. We’re committed to identifying best practices, to sharing information among companies and plant sites, to training our personnel and to applying lessons learned on an ongoing basis.

Beyond that, our facilities are tightly regulated by the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has at least two on-site inspectors at every US nuclear-energy facility every day.

And no American has ever been harmed by radiation from a US commercial nuclear-power plant — including during the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island. Improvements made after that accident, Chernobyl and the 9/11 attacks have helped ensure that the industry continues to have a safety record second to none. Layers of protection have been added in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi accident.

The nuclear industry isn’t perfect, but it is well prepared to handle severe challenges. Indian Point is protected from floods twice the level and earthquakes 100 times stronger than any ever recorded in the area.

Recently, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a multiyear, multimillion-dollar study modeling the effects of potential accidents at US nuclear facilities. The results affirm that any such event would unfold slowly and cause no widespread health effects; current emergency plans would protect the public .

Nuclear energy offers our nation the opportunity for greater energy independence while keeping the air we breathe clean. Indian Point’s reactors are safe, reliable and productive energy facilities and economic drivers for the region. They’re good for the environment and will avert an unnecessary financial burden on New Yorkers today and for years to come.

As part of Dorricott Racing from 1993-2004, Seneviratne was an integral part of winning championships in 1999, 2001 and 2002 with drivers Oriol Servia, Townsend Bell and Jon Fogarty respectively. The 1999 championship was highlighted by Dorricott Racing becoming the first team to achieve the top 3 positions in the Indy Lights Championship.

In late 2004 Seneviratne formed US RaceTronics to compete in the 2005 Atlantic Championship and immediately achieved success with multiple top 5 finishes. Between 2006 and 2008 success continued with 3 poles, 12 podiums and 1 win while the team consistently challenged for the championship.

In 2009 US RaceTronics teamed with Co-Team Principal Imran Safiulla to form Team Stargate Worlds. The newly formed partnership generated instant success in grooming pilot Simona De Silvestro to achieve a female record of 4 poles and 4 wins in the 2009 Atlantic Championship. In the team’s 6 year history it has garnered 5 wins, 7 poles, and 21 podiums finishes as part of the Cooper Tire Atlantic Championship Series.

Lotus HVM Racing’s team owner Keith Wiggins is confident that the transition of team managers is a win-win for everyone involved. “First of all, we would like to thank Vince for over 11 years of dedication to our organization. We also welcome the appointment of Shane as our new Team Manager. Like many of us when we progressed through our careers, he brings qualities demonstrated in the lower categories to the next level of Series with fresh determination and proven organizational and people skills, vital to our progress”.

Seneviratne is thrilled to be joining HVM Racing and eager to face the challenges of his new position. “I’m excited to be part of HVM Racing and happy to help Simona once more continue her remarkable racing career.  The new IndyCar brings new challenges to teams that have not had to be dealt with for many years. I’m looking forward to contributing to this team in overcoming these challenges, and in strengthening the great chemistry that exists within HVM Racing.”

Seneviratne fills the position vacated by outgoing team manager Vince Kremer who has accepted a new position with Firestone Indy Lights. Kremer said his decision was not an easy one. “It is with bittersweet regret that I move on from HVM Racing to pursue an opportunity with the Firestone Indy Lights series.  Having been a part of this operation since 1998 I have amassed many good memories and lifelong friendships.  I wish nothing but continued success for HVM, Simona DeSilvestro, Entergy and all of our commercial partners.  I would also like to personally express my thanks and gratitude to Keith Wiggins for giving me the opportunity to grow professionally within the industry.”

Of the HVM team having worked with Seneviratne in the past, none is more excited to be working with him again than HVM pilot Simona De Silvestro. “Shane is awesome. I’m really excited to have the chance to work with him again. We had great success together in 2009 and hopefully it will be the same here in IndyCar.”

The nuclear industry shares everything with one another. This means that if my company finds a better way to do something or fix something or creates a better solution to a problem, we tell everyone else in the industry about it. Yes, even our competitors. Want to come and walk through our plant, talk to our employees, have a copy of that new procedure, see how that new equipment works? C’mon over. Door’s open.

You see, the nuclear power industry is a brethren of safe, secure and tip-top (capacity, running time) operations. If one unit has a problem, we all have a problem. If one reactor has a bad incident, it could shut down our entire industry. We help each other stay safe.

Not only that, we do an extraordinary amount of self-regulation that happens ON TOP of the incredibly tough Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversight. Our industry created an organization called the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators. INPO is there to make sure we share information quickly throughout the industry (problems, solutions, innovation) and they perform an incredible amount of ongoing evaluation of all 104 reactors in the United States.

It was weird to experience this. Now it is reassuring. Our independent, competitive American spirit promotes a culture of being better than your competition in the business arena. And, yes, while we compete in some energy markets, from an operating perspective that “competitor” word doesn’t ring true. Each nuclear power CEO only wishes that all units ran at the same highest standard – and that is what INPO does, in a nut shell.

One CEO said to me, you know there really aren’t any secrets in this industry. He’s right. And thank goodness.

This transparent production of nuclear electricity is not only what the government expects (NRC and utility public service commissions) but what makes us a safe electricity-producing industry, especially in comparison to other fossil fuel generators.

Fact: Not one American has died due to the production processes of electricity by nuclear power.

On the coal mining, oil rigging, natural gas side of electricity generation we can’t go a year without seeing fatalities in the headlines, sadly enough.

Safe. Yep, production of nuclear electricity is the safest way to produce electricity based on all statistics of the past 50 years or more.

The safety culture of nuclear operators in the United States is strong. Very strong. Safety is the daily, hourly mantra of every line worker. It is preached, trained, ingrained and lived out in nuclear plants across the country. And it is still amazing to be able to tell people that the distinctive competency of the nuclear electricity-producing industry’s safety record is that we share operational practices.

Perhaps all we needed to know we really did learn in kindergarten – share, play nice and be safe.

First up: Bill Gates. I have blogged about Bill Gates being my new “nuclear hero” a couple of times already. Here’s more: “Bill Gates is just one of the perhaps-surprising public figures who is bullish on nuclear energy as a future power source. In fact, he is so supportive of one new type of nuke called TWR (traveling-wave reactor) that he is the major investor behind Terra Power, which is using Microsoft’s computing power to build next-generation power plants, possibly in conjunction with China. TWR can burn depleted uranium (instead of enriched) and other lower-quality radioactive fuels for much longer periods of time — possibly up to 100 years.”

Jeffrey Sachs began his career as one of the youngest professors of economics at Harvard University and advised developing countries on transitions from communism, during which time he became interested in the question of environmental sustainability, along with fighting poverty and hunger. He is the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and in 2004 and 2005 Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In this photo, Sachs  (center) visits a grain bank in Malawi with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Christine Todd Whitman, former New Jersey governor and head of the Environmental Protection Agency, calls the recent decision by Japan and Germany to close their countries’ nuclear power plants “reactionary.” Whitman says nuclear power is the cheap, zero-carbon answer to the unreliability of solar and wind power. Whitman supports renewing the licenses of the currently operational nuclear power plants around the country that are reaching the end of their 40-year expected life spans.

In 2004, James Lovelock, chemist and environmentalist best known as the co-originator of the Gaia Theory, shocked many environmentalists by coming out in support of nuclear energy when he wrote in the U.K.’s Independent: “By all means, let us use the small input from renewables sensibly, but only one immediately available source does not cause global warming and that is nuclear energy.”

It was fitting that the industry takes 5 days each year to advance education and understanding around the nuclear sciences. During Nuclear Science Day at the Illinois Institute of Technology on Jan. 25. I saw nearly 200 students listen closely to nationally renown scientists, operators and experts during the day-long national webcast seminars - and asked very good questions along the way. It was a meaningful way to talk about how “nuclear science is cool” and why careers in nuclear provide futures that are bright and fulfilling.

Check out this site created for the Week:
http://www.srscro.org/national-nuclear-science-week/

The Nuclear Workforce Initiative is an effort of the SRS Community Reuse Organization. The mission of the SRS Community Reuse Organization is to facilitate economic development opportunities associated with Savannah River Site technology, capabilities and missions and to serve as an informed, unified community voice for the five-county, two-state region.

Today both South Carolina and Georgia are highly reliant on nuclear energy for much of their electricity production. Georgia’s 4 nuclear units accout for more than 25% of state’s electricity generation. South Carolina’s 5 nuclear units supply about HALF of the state’s electricity. In Georgia, Plant Vogtle is under construction to meet future growth demand. Check out the cool construction photos and videos.

Salute to SRSCRO and the Nuclear Workforce Initiative for promoting a deeper understanding of nuclear technology and that the nuclear insutry brings well-paying jobs to the region!

Kudos for supporting National Nuclear Science Week. Each day they are focusing on different areas – local, careers and jobs, education and more understanding of the Savannah River Site. Good for Georgia. Good for South Carolina. And this is all good for the USA and our energy outlook.

Want to get on the nuclear bandwagon? C’mon in. The party’s getting started.

Indianapolis, Ind. (January 17, 2012) – Lotus HVM Racing, the Lotus test team and Swiss driver Simona De Silvestro completed a successful shakedown of the new 2012 Lotus-powered Dallara DW12 on Thursday, before  beginning more in-depth testing of the 2.2 liter, twin-turbo V6 engine on Friday at Palm Beach International Raceway in West Palm Beach, FL.

After two full days of testing over the weekend and turning 300+ incident free miles in West Palm Beach, the Lotus team packed up and moved to Sebring for additional testing yesterday and today. 870 miles were run over the combined sessions.

Driver Simona De Silvestro was extremely happy with her time in the new car. “I think it was really a good four days,” she said. “We ran a lot of miles. We did a lot of laps. I’ve never spent so much time in a race car. We started tweaking on the race car just to see what it liked. It was a really positive test and to be part of the first laps on the Lotus engine… I learned so many things right there. These guys have been really open and showed me everything and we worked really well together which was really cool. I can’t wait to get back in the car again.”

De Silvestro isn’t the only HVM Racing member that was happy with the results of the testing. “We’re very satisfied with the way everything went,” said team manager Vince Kremer. “I feel like we made good solid strides. Simona put some solid laps in and the engine ran flawlessly. We exceeded what our original parameters were and we’re looking forward to the next test in a few days. I can’t emphasize enough how well the collaboration with the three teams and the engine supplier went.”

Lotus IndyCar Manager Olivier Picquenot was equally pleased with the initial testing. “This was the most successful test I have ever participated in,” he said. “We achieved more than I expected. The quality of the engine is perfect. We’re very pleased from a technical aspect on behalf of Lotus and Judd. I would like to thank Simona for her fantastic job during the 4 days. She was smiling all the time and was very good at giving feedback to the engineers to progress in our development. .Hopefully the rest of the tests will be as successful.”

As the first driver of the three team collaborative group (HVM Racing, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Bryan Herta Autosport) working with Lotus to develop the new engine, Simona will have her next opportunity to drive the car again in February.  Lotus test drivers Alex Tagliani and Oriol Servia will share driving responsibilities with Simona in the scheduled tests in February and March. Simona will be present to join her engineers and team members at the upcoming tests in Homestead and again in Sebring.

For additional information, please contact Trish Donovan at tdonovan@hvminc.net.

This year the group of national partners has put together an array of education and media to tell the nuclear story during this celebration week. Of course there a FREE tools, ideas, downloads, curricula, games, proclamations and more available at the National Nuclear Science Week website: www.NuclearScienceWeek.org/

Download the poster here for National Nuclear Science Week – display it at your work and in your community. Thanks to PopAtomic Studios for such cool artwork.

Download the APP on the first day of the week, Monday, Jan. 24 from the Idaho National Laboratories for your phone and IPad, here is the address: https://nuclearapp.inl.gov/

Check out this cool website from Savannah – http://www.srscro.org/national-nuclear-science-week/. And they have posters and other things at the site to download and check out. Awesome.

The Foundation for Nuclear Studies is hosting a discussion on “Careers in Nuclear Fields – Workforce Trends and Insutry Initiatives” on Tuesday of the week, Jan. 24, in Washington D.C., for congressional staffers. The Foundation for Nuclear Studies, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provides information and educational opportunities for policymakers and the general public about nuclear science and technology, with the objective of promoting sound national policy. For more information contact Chris Carter at carter@helenmilby.com or 202.548.0021.

Nuclear Science Day is being held at the Illinois Institute of Technology on Wednesday, Jan. 25. In partnership with the National Science Teachers Association and other generous sponsors, there is a national LIVE WEB SEMINAR for teachers and their classes across the country. Very cool. Cool enough to have their own poster, too, again compliments of PopAtomic Studios. Get the poster here.

Utilities are having events at local schools, the American Nuclear Society has chapters across the nation celebrating as does Women In Nuclear and North American-Young Generation in Nuclear. All are welcome to come to this party and to start your own!

The national week gives us in the field the opportunity to tell our good, positive story of how nuclear sciences have contributed greatly to our society and to our world and do so every day in medicine, electricity, technology research and more. Education continues to be the key. The founding sponsor, the National Museum for Nuclear Science and History is a Smithsonian Affiliate that is leading the way. Thanks to them and to all of the thousands that will participate is this worthwhile week for nuclear science.

The combination of a powerful earthquake and a massive tsunami that overwhelmed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility was an event that continues to reverberate across energy circles. The United States reaffirmed that we are the global gold standard for nuclear safety while other countries question and waver on their energy strategies.

But while some nuclear critics predicted a pivotal shift away from nuclear electricity production, it has not happened. Here is a snapshot of the situation in Japan and the state of America’s industry as we look toward 2012.

Fukushima Daiichi:
Reactors 1-4 have been stabilized with all four in a cold shutdown condition (i.e., reactor coolant system below boiling point and no longer releasing significant amounts of radiation). Reactors 5 and 6, which were not significantly damaged, have been in cold shutdown mode since March 20.

U.S. Response to the Fukushima Accident
In the weeks immediately following the accident, U.S. nuclear energy facilities verified their readiness—via site inspections, procedural reviews and training programs—to safely respond to extreme events, regardless of their cause. The U.S. industry also established a framework to coordinate and integrate response activities industry-wide. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission identified near-term priorities for U.S. facilities and the industry has proposed to the NRC a flexible and diverse strategy to implement key recommendations that is designed to achieve a greater safety benefit quicker.

Natural Challenges in the U.S.
U.S. nuclear energy facilities responded very well to a number of natural challenges, including the Aug. 23 earthquake centered only miles from the North Anna power station, Hurricane Irene, record flooding in Nebraska and tornadoes in the Southeast.

Positive Signs in 2011
The NRC approved operating license renewal applications for 10 reactors. The 10 reactors have a combined electric generating capacity of 6,700 megawatts.

Generating capacity uprates at four reactors were approved by the NRC. The uprates will increase the U.S electricity generation capacity by 208 megawatts. In the past five years, uprates have provided an additional 1,145 megawatts of electric capacity—the equivalent of a new reactor!

The industry made steady progress toward the construction of new nuclear energy facilities. The NRC is expected to finalize by early 2012 its review of construction and operating licenses for two sites in Georgia and South Carolina where electric utilities are building four reactors that will commence operations later this decade.

The Tennessee Valley Authority made continued progress on construction of the Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor in eastern Tennessee, where 3,500 workers are on site. Project completion is expected in 2013.

The NRC in October issued a license to AREVA Enrichment Services LLC to build and operate a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility in eastern Idaho.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future in July released its draft report of recommendations on future management of used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Key recommendations included establishment of one or more consolidated interim storage facilities, development of a permanent underground repository and the creation of a new management organization that will assume the U.S. Department of Energy’s role in managing this material.

The Global Outlook for Nuclear Energy
There are 63 new nuclear plants under construction in 14 countries, and 152 new reactors on order or planned.
The 2011 edition of the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook projects a 70 percent increase in nuclear electricity generation by 2035, led by China, Korea and India.. It warns that decreased use of nuclear energy would raise the cost of electricity globally and virtually foil any attempt to contain carbon dioxide emissions.

So long 2011 and happy 2012 to all!

At 1:23 p.m. on December 20, 1951, Argonne National Laboratory director Walter Zinn scribbled into his log book:

“Electricity flows from atomic energy. Rough estimate indicates 45 kw.” At that moment, scientists from Argonne and the National Reactor Testing Station watched four light bulbs glow, powered by the world’s first nuclear reactor to generate electricity.

Fifteen years later, in Arco, Idaho, President Johnson stood at this same site and designated the reactor a national historic landmark. He said:

“We have moved far to tame for peaceful uses the mighty forces unloosed when the atom was split. And we have only just begun. What happened here merely raised the curtain on a very promising drama in our long journey for a better life.”