Nuclear Energy To Remain Part Of US Energy Mix:Utility Executive
March 23 2011 - 12:49PM
Dow Jones News
Nuclear energy will be part of the energy mix in the U.S.
despite declining public support for nuclear power because of the
crisis in Japan, the president of New Jersey-based Public Service
Enterprise Group (PEG) said Wednesday.
PSEG President and Chief Operating Officer William Lewis said it
isn't "clear yet" how the Japan crisis will impact licensing
renewals for existing plants or investment in new ones--"I'm not
going to speak for investors," he said. But Lewis did acknowledge
that regulatory changes could influence planned nuclear
projects.
"Obviously some of those economics are impacted by additional
regulation that gets put into effect," Lewis said. "You can build
these plants on time and on budget with the certainly of a
regulatory structure that supports it and, frankly, a public that
supports it."
Lewis' comments came as the nuclear industry faces increased
scrutiny about its planning for an earthquake and tsunami on March
11 knocked out safety systems at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant in northern Japan and caused the release of potentially
dangerous radiation.
Lewis acknowledged that the events in Japan went beyond what
engineers there had planned for and said U.S. companies would have
to re-evaluate the "design basis" for their own safety plans.
"We'll go back and relook at this too, just to ensure ourselves
that we've got this right," he said.
But Lewis echoed other industry spokesman in saying nuclear
plants in the U.S. have redundant systems to deal with earthquakes,
floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
"New plants will be able to stand up and show why they are
designed appropriately for the events that we saw," he said. "At
the end of the day, when you really look at the impact of this from
a public health standpoint, nuclear will stand tall."
Lewis argued that while construction of reactors in the U.S.
slowed after a nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in 1979
brought on new regulations, "it wasn't Three Mile Island that
killed the initial wave of construction in our country, it was the
fact that interest rates were 20%."
Lewis said the crisis in Japan shouldn't affect plant license
renewals in the U.S. because the renewals here relate to managing
aging equipment.
"There's nothing that happened in (Japan) that looks like it's
related to aging management, so I would think that they would go
on," Lewis said, referring to license renewals. "But I also
recognize that there is some need for caution and some additional
questions that need to be asked."
Lewis was speaking at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, a think tank in Washington.
-By Ryan Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9245;
ryan.tracy@dowjones.com
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