Pennsylvania Nuke News Notes

Forbes.com has an interesting article on the "Nuclear Renaissance" and how to invest in the industry at the various points along the fuel cycle. It suggests that Americans have renewed interest in nuclear energy, after several scares thirty years ago -- the film China Syndrome, Three-Mile Island (near Harrisburg, PA), and Chernobyl in the Soviet Ukraine. All of the same talking points, interestingly enough, are covered in an article released at about the same time in The Mankato Free Press.

Speaking of Three Mile Island, one of its reactors showed a possible decrease in pressure during a maintenance outage, so the owner, Exelon Corp, had to file an unusual activity report with the NRC. A news report says that Exelon decided it was an erroneous reading of the gauges, not a problem with the reactor. Such events are often reported in the press.

Under the category Not In My Backyard, or maybe better, If You Don't Build It, They Won't Come, The Patriot News is happy with its 1998 suggestion that Pennsylvania hold out for other states to take our nuclear waste. They opposed a search for nuclear storage facilities within Pennsylvania and feel vindicated that their sit tight posture is paying off -- the high grade materials can stay temporarily onsite at nuclear power plants (that's not in Pennsylvania, really) and the low grade stuff is losing its home at Barnwell but can probably be sent to a facility in Utah or a new one being considered in Texas. The article suggests that nuclear waste is on the decline, but they've not read the advocacy articles above, evidently.

Curtiss-Wright Corp's Electro-mechanical Division has received a $440k grant from Penn Dept of Community and Economic Development towards building a USD 62 million plant in Cheswick, Pa. The plant will manufacture 16 nuclear reactor coolant pumps under a contract with Westinghouse. Cheswick is in Allegheny County.