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Feb. 26, 2001 -- Some of this week's stories:
ANL-W promotes international nuclear safety
Exelon CEO confident about nuclear's future
Gospel Choir to perform at ANL-East
Applicants wanted for MBA program
ECT offers software classes
Retirees |
"Strengthening Safety Culture and Infrastructure: International Perspectives" was the topic of two special sessions held at the recent American Nuclear Society Winter meeting in Washington D.C.
Both sessions were sponsored by the Nuclear Installations Safety Division of the American Nuclear Society and organized by Argonne-West. Nuclear Technology Division Director Pete Planchon moderated both sessions.
Panelists focused on how governments, international agencies, and safety centers around the world are providing a powerful network of scientific and technical expertise to further define safety culture as well as develop, implement, assess and improve the concept, Planchon said.
"After lively discussion most participants agreed that challenges will include integrating concepts, principles, and attitudes that are affected by national culture, labor habits, and social and economic factors," Planchon added.
The first session featured presentations and discussions with James Turner, U.S. Department of Energy assistant deputy administrator for international nuclear safety and cooperation; Annick Carnino, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Nuclear Installation Safety Division; Janice Dunn Lee, director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's International Programs; Dave Hill, division director for Argonne's Reactor Analysis and Engineering Division, and Kenneth Lee Peddicord, associate vice chancellor and professor of nuclear engineering at Texas A&M University. The session's primary focus was to address internal and external programs aimed at promoting and strengthening safety culture and safety infrastructure.
The second session included directors of nuclear safety centers from the Newly Independent States (NIS), former members of the Soviet Union. Among the participants were Sergei Bugaenko, director of the Russian International Nuclear Safety Center in Moscow; Anatoly Nosovsky, director for the Slavutych Laboratory of International Research and Technology operated by the International Chornobyl Center in Slavutych, Ukraine; Irina Tazhibaeva, director of the Nuclear Technology Safety Center in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Eugenijus Uspuras, head of the Laboratory of Nuclear Installation Safety for Lithuanian Energy Institute in Kaunas, Lithuania, and Jeff Binder, director of the U.S. International Safety Center. This meeting, the first of its kind, allowed the directors to share their approaches and discuss current plans to develop and improve the safety of nuclear installations in the NIS countries.
The world's present situation bodes well for the nuclear power industry, said Corbin McNeill, co-CEO of Exelon Corp., who spoke at the Argonne Guest House Feb. 8 during a meeting of the Chicago section of the American Nuclear Society.
Exelon is the new company formed from the merger of Unicom (the parent company of ComEd) and PECO Energy. Exelon has an electric and natural gas distribution customer base of approximately 5 million and is the largest nuclear operator in the United States with more than 16,500 megawatts of nuclear capacity.
Three issues affect nuclear power's future, McNeill said:
Electric deregulation, especially notable now
because of electricity shortages in California;
Environmental issues, particularly those related
to the Kyoto accords;
New technology, including new types of
reactor design.
On deregulation, McNeill quoted Vice President Dick Cheney as pointing out that the situation in California is the result of a "flawed" deregulation plan, further hampered by opposition to the construction of new power plants. "Because of all the attention California has been getting, the pace of electric deregulation is likely to slow for the next year or so," McNeill said. "I think that, while political leaders in states not yet deregulated may want to take more time before acting, eventually electricity markets throughout the U.S. will all be opened to competition."
On a national basis, he added, "We do have a shortage of generation. This has been brought about by two factors -- many plants have reached the end of their useful lives and the nation's growing economy has increased demand for power. The long-term solution to this problem requires that we build new plants. And logic dictates that some of these plants should be nuclear."
When nuclear power was being commercially developed in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, McNeill said, it was "a high-technology, high-benefit program that had strong support from the government, as well as from regulators, elected officials and the general public."
However, during the 1970s and 1980s, four factors combined to make nuclear power uncompetitive. Plants under construction were hit with high inflation, driving up costs; a lack of standardization to the plans made it difficult to control costs through economies of scale; regulatory reviews brought about following the accident at Three Mile Island caused delays and increased construction costs; and the large number of plant modifications resulting from the Three Mile Island accident "overwhelmed management teams at many nuclear plants and reduced the attention given to operations. This lack of attention resulted in both poor operational and regulatory performance that greatly increased costs and made the plants even more costly.
Under the regulatory environment, investors in utilities were protected from financial loss, but that changed under deregulation.
Deregulation-driven changes at Exelon Nuclear improved operations, he said, bringing the industry's capacity factor from 66 percent in 1990 to 90 percent last year. "Without this improvement I'm certain that other parts of the country, and not just California, would be experiencing power shortages."
Today, McNeill said, "nuclear generation is competitive with fossil. The cost of generating a kilowatt at a nuclear plant varies from a low of about two cents up to about two-and-a-half cents, about on par with coal-fired plants. The cost of generation at oil and natural gas plants is currently running more than three cents a kilowatt."
Environmental issues will join with economic ones to increase nuclear power's attractiveness, McNeill said.
"Nuclear power is an emission-free source of energy that already is preventing millions of tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide from entering the environment. As a matter of fact, most states would not be able to meet the current requirements of the Federal Clean Air Act if it weren't for nuclear power," he said.
On the third factor, new technologies, McNeill said that Exelon is studying the technical and economic potential of the pebble-bed modular reactor, or PBMR, which he expects to lead to construction of a demonstration plant in South Africa. Because of the modular design, the plant will be "adaptable and flexible," he said.
He called on all those associated with the nuclear power industry to share with others nuclear power's role in the nation's energy supply. "If we speak up, I am certain we will find increasing support for nuclear power as safe, clean and efficient to meet America's energy needs," he said.
The Argonne-DOE Gospel Choir will perform at Argonne-East Tuesday, Feb. 27, in celebration of African-American History Month.
The choir will sing in the Building 213 Cafeteria at noon and in the lobby of Building 201 at 2 p.m.
Sodexho Marriott will feature special lunch selections in the cafeteria's exhibition cooking area on that day.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2001 University of Chicago Executive MBA Program.
This year Argonne management will select one employee to participate in this program, offered through the university's Graduate School of Business. This program is designed for middle- and upper-level managers who are expected to retain full job responsibilities while attending classes in advanced studies in management every other Friday and Saturday beginning in July. The entire program spans 20 months.
Applications are available online or by calling ext. 2-3410. The deadline for returning completed applications to Human Resources is Friday, March 23.
Call Charlyne Robinson (HR) at ext. 2-3410 for more information.
Electronics and Computing Technologies will offer a range of computer software classes at Argonne-East in March.
Full class descriptions are available online or under the "Education and Training" heading on the Argonnet home page . To enroll, contact a division Training Management System representative. For more information about enrollment procedures, contact Diane Cavazos (ECT) at ext. 2-7153 or dkcavazos@anl.gov.
Unless otherwise noted, classes will be held in Building 221, Room A142, cost $195 and are limited to ten participants.
Advanced Access 2000 (ECT380) -- Wednesday, March 14, 8:30 a.m. -
4:30 p.m. Prerequisite: Intermediate Access 2000. Class
size limited to eight.
Advanced Word 2000 (ECT378) -- Monday, March 12, 8:30 a.m. -
4:30 p.m. Prerequisites: Introduction and Intermediate Word.
Advanced Excel 2000 (ECT379) -- Tuesday, March 13, 8:30 a.m. _
4:30 p.m. Prerequisites: Introduction and Intermediate
Excel 2000.
Front Page 2000 (ECT383) -- This class is two full days.
Thursday, March 15, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., and Friday,
March 16, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 a.m. Class limited to eight. Cost: $390.
John R. Bazzoni (OCF-BUD) retired Jan. 31 with 38 years of service.
Benny Clifft (PHY) retired Jan. 5 with 40 years of service.
Victor L. Davidson (PFS-BM) retired Jan. 15 with 35 years of service.
Dwight Diercks (ET) retired Jan. 31 with 28 years of service.
Alfred Fox (PFS-CU) retired Jan. 26 with 32 years of service.
Brenda M. Grazis (CHM) retired Jan. 12 with 30 years of service.
William Lawrence (ET) retired Jan. 31 with 36 years of service.
Pedro A. Montano (MSD) retired Jan. 2 with 10 years of service.
Frances K. Moore (PFS-CU) retired Jan. 2 with 29 years of service.
Arliene Niemann (AIP) retired Jan. 4 with 12 years of service.
Larry Reed (ES) retired Jan. 2 with 22 years of service.
Ken Resh (ECT) retired Jan. 15 with 40 years of service.
Eugene K. Sherman (ET) retired Jan. 5 with 27 years of service.
Kenneth Uherka (ET) retired Jan. 31 with 27 years of service.
Allan C. Youngs (CHM) retired Jan. 5 with 37 years of service.
NEW ARRIVALS
A girl, Emily, born July 9 to Amanda Erickson (UPD); a girl, Yunsin, born Dec. 24 to Jennifer and Wah-Keat Lee (UPD); a girl, Clara Elizabeth, born Jan. 12 to Cathy and Dean Haeffner (UPD); a boy, Thomas Neal, born November 28 to Mary and John Daum (PFS-MC); a boy, Evan, born Dec. 15 to Jennifer and Eric Smith (ENT); a boy, Justin, born Dec. 21 to Ho-Soon Yang (MSD); a girl, Molly Rose Elisabeth, born Jan. 9 to Deb (MCS) and Rick Stevens (MCS); a boy, Brandon Lee, born to Laura and Darryl Reigle (ASD); a son, Max Horsch, born Dec. 12 to Karla and Steve Tuecki (MCS).
Proud grandparents: a granddaughter, Sophia Murphy, born to David (FD) and Vonnel Rapp (RPS); a grandson, Antonio, born Dec. 21 to Tony Tafaya (IPNS); a grandson, Max, born Dec. 29 to Terry Scott (IPNS); a grandson Logan Mathew, born Dec. 14 to Bill McGee (PFS-MC); a grandson, Connor Robert, born November 14 to Jim and Judy Wozniak (RPE).
ACHIEVEMENTS
Congratulations to Lisa Peters (PFS-FEC) on her recent bachelor of science degree in Business Management. Paula Marie Sejut, daughter of Janice Sejut (OCF-PRO), was named to the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's list at Loyola University-Chicago and was honored for her accomplishment by accepting membership in the Golden Key National Honor Society.
James M. Cooper (ES) received hi MS Degree in geology from Northern Illinois University. Jaime Martino, daughter of Fred Martino (CMT), received her MS degree from the University of Illinois School of Labor and Industrial Relations.
ENGAGEMENTS/WEDDINGS
Congratulations to Darlene Kinney (UPD) on her engagement to Jerry O'Malley. Kurt Goetze (UPD) on his engagement to Karen Hagerman. Christal Mason (NT) on her marriage to Brian Runz.
WELCOME
FD welcomes Jade D. Pherson. RPS welcomes Terry J. Lutz, Wyn J. Seeley, Carl D. Etter and Marcos A. Jimenez. ENT welcomes Dawn E. Janney and Jan-Fong Jue. ES welcomes Gregory Hillman, Benoit Deville, Sarah Naegele, Sung Chul Oh, Gerald Zini and Jonathan Davila. ASD welcomes Jim Humbert. UPD welcomes Ulrich Lienert. EA welcomes Brian Cantwell, George Stephens, Dawn King, John Kupar and Cynthia Adornetto. PFS welcomes Orland Scott, Dan Newtoff, Eric Rod, Jim Brower and Mark Walker. PFS-CU welcomes Fred Kempke, Charles Greenwood, Kim Young and William Riley. ECT-CTT welcomes George Beranek and Brian Moran.
GET WELL
Get well wishes for James Love (ECT-CTT) and Nelson Lundy (ECT-EE) who are both recovering from surgery.
PROMOTIONS
Congratulations to Harry Cavett (PFS-MC) who was promoted to Foreman; Mike Goff (ENT) who was promoted to nuclear engineer; Randall E. Winans (APS) who was promoted to BESSRC-CAT director; Lee Welko (CMT) who was promoted to administrative assistant; Russell Jones (PFS-CU) who was promoted to foreman.
TRANSFERS
Good luck to Anthony Sendra who transferred from PFS-CU to PFS-SS. Gene Ulas who transferred from PFS-MC to PFS-US. Jim Johnson who transferred from PFS-MC to PFS-US. Madonna Pence who transferred from ESH to IPD-TCS. Wayne Sampson who transferred from PFS-CU to PFS-MC. James Withrow, Alex Contreras and Ken Wesolowski all transferred from PFS-CU to ECT-EE.
CONDOLENCES
Condolences to Ben Chin Cha (UPD) on the death of her father; Linda Carlson (UPD) on the death of her grandmother; Cindy Doran (UPD) on the death of her father-in-law; Jan Stache (EA) on the death of her father; Jason Dunkin (PFS-CU) on the death of his grandmother; Sandi Peterson (RPS) on the death of her mother; Conrad Tome (ES) on the death of his wife; Khalil Amine (CMT) on the death of his father; Michele Lewis (CMT) on the death of her father; Bruce Huckfeldt (PFS-CU) on the death of his grandmother; Glenn Cain (PFS-VM) on the death of his mother; Patti Gajewski (PFS) on the death of her mother-in-law.
CONTRIBUTORS
Thanks to this issue's contributors: Judy Beumer (MCS), Jodi Canaday (ASD), Pam Dalman (UPD), Gaylene Flores (ANL-W), Lori Greenwood (EA), Gloria Griparis (IPD-TCS), Sheila Jungman (MSD), Karen Kroczek (PFS), Jo Ann Parnell (ES), Sally Peters (OCF-PRO), Faith Ruppert (CMT), Michelle Schikora (ECT) and Carolyn Tobin (IPNS).
More contributors are needed to gather Ar'Gang news in their divisions.
For more information, e-mail Argonne News editor Dave Jacqué at info@anl.gov. Send Ar'Gang news to Angie McKay at amckay@anl.gov.
