The National Association of Manufacturers has joined a broad group of supporters of nuclear power in urging Congress to maintain the Yucca Mountain site as a viable repository for nuclear waste.

From the news release, “Eighteen Organizations Urge Continued Funding for Yucca Mountain; Ask for Release of Documents on Proposed Termination“:

WASHINGTON, March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – A coalition of leading national and regional organizations — representing energy and individual taxpayers; state elected and regulatory officials; communities and energy-related businesses — expressed vigorous support for the continuation of the Yucca Mountain repository program in letters to key Congressional appropriators.  The group urged release of all documents associated with the Obama Administration’s decision to cancel the program while advocating “immediate suspension” of payments to the Nuclear Waste Fund in the event the U.S. Congress agrees to implement the Department’s termination request.

“This proposed action will unnecessarily leave the United States with no path forward or operative ‘Plan B’ for the Nation’s nuclear waste, violate the provisions of the bipartisanly-enacted Nuclear Waste Policy Act, represent unjustified intrusion into an ongoing review by the NRC, contradicting the President’s Memorandum on Scientific Integrity; result in wholly inadequate funding to preserve the integrity of the taxpayers’ $10 billion investment; and continue to siphon approximately $770 million annually from electricity consumers in 41 states,” the organizations said in letters to Senate and House leaders of the energy and water development appropriations subcommittees.

The letter is available here, via the Sustainable Fuel Cycle Task Force.

A news release from Southern Co., “Southern Company Receives DOE Support for Nation’s First Nuclear Units in 30 Years.” Excerpt:

ATLANTA, Feb. 16 – Southern Company today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has offered its subsidiary Georgia Power a conditional commitment for loan guarantees for the construction of the nation’s first nuclear power units in more than 30 years, a move designed to help spur a renaissance in America’s nuclear industry.

“We are honored by the administration’s confidence in our ability to build the nation’s first new nuclear power plant in more than three decades,” said Southern Company CEO David Ratcliffe, following an event at which President Obama and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the award. “It’s an important endorsement in the role nuclear power must play in diversifying our nation’s energy mix and helping to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”

President Obama and Secretary Chu announced the commitment for the loan guarantees at a news conference held at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26 in Lanham, Md.  Ratcliffe was joined at the event by Georgia Power CEO Mike Garrett, Southern Company COO Tom Fanning, Southern Nuclear CEO Jim Miller and Southern Company Executive Vice President Chris Womack.

President Obama’s remarks announcing the loan guarantees today in Lanham, Md.

[Through] the Department of Energy and Secretary Chu’s leadership, we are announcing roughly $8 billion in loan guarantees to break ground on the first new nuclear plant in our country in three decades — the first new nuclear power plant in nearly three decades.  (Applause.)

It’s a plant that will create thousands of construction jobs in the next few years, and some 800 permanent jobs — well-paying permanent jobs — in the years to come.  And this is only the beginning.  My budget proposes tripling the loan guarantees we provide to help finance safe, clean nuclear facilities -– and we’ll continue to provide financing for clean energy projects here in Maryland and across America.

Department of Energy news release, “Obama Administration Announces Loan Guarantees to Construct New Nuclear Power Reactors in Georgia”

UPDATE (5:10 p.m.): From Clean Skies News, video of the President’s remarks.

President Obama is expected to announce today federal loan guarantees under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 for construction of two new reactor units at Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle in Burke, Ga., south of Augusta.

From The Atlanta Journal Constitution, “Obama to announce Georgia nuke loan guarantees today“:

An Obama official … confirmed the news to the AJC on Monday, saying the president would travel to Lanham, Md., today, where he will tour a training center that includes applications for clean energy and low-carbon technologies, including the construction of nuclear plants. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will join the president on the tour.

AP and UPI report that the President’s trip is to a jobs training center housed at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26 and the National Electrical Contractors Association site.

The Senate is expected to take up a “jobs bill” when it returns from the Presidents Day recess next week. If you’re talking jobs, policies that support nuclear power are a good way to go. From Southern Company’s website on the Plant Vogtle project:

Economic Impacts

• Up to $14 billion of investment in the state of Georgia
• 3,500 quality jobs during construction
• 800 high-paying jobs for the life of the plant
• Tax dollars to the local communities and the state over the expected 60-year life

Southern has much good information at its website, the section, “Building New Plants.”

The Sacramento Bee profiles the new executive director of the Sierra Club, Michael Brune, who comes on board the country’s largest environmental organization on March 15. Citing Brune’s prior leadership at the radical, fond-of-disruption Rain Forest Action Network, the Bee’s story is headlined, “New leader looks to fire up Sierra Club.”

By powering down the United States.

At the heart of that struggle, Brune says, lies America’s continued dependence on coal-fired electricity plants – plants which currently provide an estimated 45 percent of the nation’s energy but which are a major sources of greenhouse gas emissions…[snip]

“We must replace dirty coal in this country,” Brune said. “We must continue this fight until we convince our political and industry leaders that there are more economic benefits to be had by transitioning to wind power and other forms of clean energy.”

It’s fantasy to argue that “wind power and other forms of clean energy” can supplant coal, especially when Brune — as reported in this NewJerseyNews.com profile — opposes nuclear power.

Here’s what the Energy Information Administration had to say in its annual energy outlook about coal’s future role in the U.S. economy through 2035:

Total coal consumption increases from 22.4 quadrillion Btu (1,122 million short tons) in 2008 to 25.6 quadrillion Btu (1,319 million short tons) in 2035 in the AEO2010 reference case. Coal consumption, mostly for electric power generation, grows gradually throughout the projection period, as existing plants are used more intensively, and new plants, which are already under construction, are completed and enter service.

Brune’s leadership involves getting arrested in flashy protest actions with the usual suspects like Darryl Hannah and James Hansen.

Funny, too, that Brune rises to power advocating extreme action even as the anti-energy climate activists are in retreat scientifically and politically. When even The Washington Post has to acknowledge the seriously flawed “evidence”* being used to push a global economic restructuring — page one Monday, “Series of missteps by climate scientists threatens climate-change agenda” — then the movement is losing steam. Can a radical program of civil disobedience fire up the more mainstream Sierra Club or just cost it members?

Bloomberg, “Obama Said Set to Give Southern Co. Nuclear-Loan Aid”

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama will announce Feb. 16 that Southern Co. will get a federal loan guarantee to build two nuclear reactors in Georgia, the first support awarded under a five-year-old law, an administration official said…[snip]

The financial commitment will be used to add two 1,150-megawatt reactors to Southern’s two-unit site south of Augusta, Georgia.

Bloomberg further reports that the Department of Energy has authority to award $18.5 billion in loan guarantees, “and the administration put Atlanta-based Southern at the top of a short list that also included Constellation Energy Group Inc., NRG Energy Inc. and Scana Corp.” More …

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “AP: Southern Co. to get federal loan guarantees for nuclear reactors“
• Financial Times, “Obama offers nuclear plant loan guarantee“

In his Jan. 27 State of the Union address, President Obama declared, “[To] create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives.  And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.” The President’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget called for tripling federal loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear plants to $54.5 billion. From the OMB’s fact sheet:

Develop the Market for Clean Energy Technologies. The Budget substantially expands support for construction of new nuclear power plants by increasing the Department of Energy loan guarantees authority for such projects by $36 billion, to a total of $54.5 billion, and provides credit subsidy funding of $500 million to support $3 to $5 billion of loan guarantees for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.  The loan guarantee program will encourage new nuclear facilities and a range of renewable energy projects that reduce greenhouse gases and pollutants, while simultaneously creating jobs and contributing to long-term economic growth.

 UPDATE (1:40 p.m.): The two new units are planned for Plant Vogtle. According to Southern’s fact sheet, the company has chosen the light-water Westinghouse AP1000 technology for the proposed units.  More than 40 new nuclear plants are under construction in 12 countries around the world — almost all using light-water reactor technology.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama declared, “[To] create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives.  And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.”

Today the President reinforced that call to action with a Presidential memo instructing the Department of Energy to appoint a Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. Energy Secretary Steven Chu did so, announcing that former National Security Advisor Brent Scrowcroft and retired Rep. Lee Hamilton will head the new commission to develop proposals for a safe, long-term solution to managing used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste.  (DOE news release.)

With the Yucca Mountain repository stalled due to funding and politics, the question of long-term waste storage still must be resolved to provide confidence to investors and the public alike.  The NAM is an advocate of nuclear power as a reliable and a predictable low-cost supply of energy, a key element of a pro-growth agenda. Manufacturers are not only users of the clean energy nuclear plants provide, but supply the market needed to build, operate and maintain plants throughout the world.

The NAM appreciates the announcement of the Blue Ribbon Commission and looks forward to seeing the recommendations that will ensure that President Obama’s call for “safe clean nuclear power” becomes reality.

Alexis Bayer is NAM’s Director for Energy and Resources Policy

Today at 10 a.m., the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing:

FULL COMMITTEE HEARING: to receive testimony on S. 2052, a bill to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to require the Secretary of Energy to carry out a research and development and demonstration program to reduce manufacturing and construction costs relating to nuclear reactors, and for other purposes and S. 2812, The Nuclear Power 2021 Act (Hearing Room SD-366).

The public radio news feature, “Power Breakfast,” reported this morning on the cooperation of Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) in promoting nuclear power research. Good segment.

The Washington Post puts the issue on the front page today, and that’s good news judgment…in our judgment.

From “Nuclear power regains support“:

It has been 13 years since the last new nuclear power plant opened in the United States. But around the world, nations under pressure to reduce the production of climate-warming gases are turning to low-emission nuclear energy as never before. The Obama administration and leading Democrats, in an effort to win greater support for climate change legislation, are eyeing federal tax incentives and loan guarantees to fund a new crop of nuclear power plants across the United States that could eventually help drive down carbon emissions.

From China to Brazil, 53 plants are now under construction worldwide, with Poland, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia seeking to build their first reactors, according to global watchdog groups and industry associations. The number of plants being built is double the total of just five years ago.

Now that’s a good topic for the Dec. 3 White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth, unemployment in nuclear power. As NAM President John Engler told the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers on November 6:

As I’m sure you know, there hasn’t been a brand new nuclear power plant completed in the United States since the 1980s. We’re losing our expertise, our infrastructure, and missing out on jobs.

A typical power plant creates 14,000 to 15,000 jobs during pre-construction, up to 2,400 jobs during construction, and 700 permanent, high-paying jobs thereafter.

So real energy security - and jobs.

From William Tucker, author of ”Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America’s Energy Odyssey,” cautious praise for the signs that the Obama Administration supports nuclear power, “Obama Coming Around Slowly on Nuclear?”

UPDATE (3:45 p.m.): An opportunity to demonstrate the seriousness of the support for nuclear power. From The Boston Globe:

President Obama is planning to give a speech Friday at MIT, according to a White House statement and a copy of his schedule. Obama, who is in town to hold a fund-raiser for Governor Deval Patrick, will deliver remarks on “American leadership in clean energy,’’ according to the statement. He will address state, community, and business leaders, as well as MIT students and staff. Obama is scheduled to arrive in Boston at 11:30 a.m., and will depart about four hours later. His address at MIT will take place in Kresge Auditorium, beginning at noon.

A piece in The Weekly Standard by Spence Abraham, former Secretary of Energy, “New Nukes!”

In the United Kingdom, a Labour party government similarly concerned about carbon emissions and foreign energy dependence has forged ahead with a nuclear initiative first proposed by former Prime Minister Tony Blair and continued by Gordon Brown, each of whom used his office to educate the citizenry and bring many nuclear skeptics around. America needs that same type of leadership today.

For President Obama, the temptation is to follow the urgings of environmental groups and anti-nuclear activists and effectively kill off nuclear energy by denying needed federal support. But if the president is serious about reducing our dependence on foreign energy and addressing climate change, he will help launch America’s renaissance in nuclear energy.

In Germany, leadership involves the new coalition government rejecting past plans to phase out nuclear power. From Bloomberg, “Merkel’s Bloc, FDP Make Headway on Nuclear Energy, Deregulation“:

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc and the pro-business Free Democratic Party made headway in three-day talks to form Germany’s next government, reaching a breakthrough on extending nuclear energy and an agreement on deregulation.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, agreed with the FDP to embrace nuclear power as a “bridge technology,” Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said today. The three parties also forged a plan to trim regulation for mid-size German companies.