Dan Yurman of Idaho Samizdat did a write-up about our most recent conference call with a group of nuclear energy bloggers. Thanks for the shout-out! In the just over two months since we started this blog, we’ve received a warm welcome from the nuclear energy blogging community. We’re really glad for the opportunity to be part of the community, and very grateful for the independent bloggers’ willingness to engage with us and ask us the tough questions. As always, if you’ve got any questions or thoughts, please don’t hesitate to comment!

We’ve seen some questions floating around recently – most notably by Idaho Samizdat – about AREVA Enrichment Services’ recent submission for a revision of its license application to the Nuclear Regulation Commission for the possibility to increase facility capacity. As noted yesterday, AES has requested an increase in the future licensed capacity of the Eagle Rock facility from 3.3 million separative work units (SWU) to 6.6 million SWU per year. We’d like to take this chance to explain why we’re doing this.

Quite frankly, our plans have not changed. We still intend to build a 3.3 million SWU facility. As AREVA indicated before, the plant can be expanded if market conditions favor such expansion. The expansion decision will be made in the future based on the conditions at the time. Having said that, however we have higher level of confidence in new reactor construction in the U.S. and other parts of the world, which will contribute to higher demand for enrichment. To be ready for such possibility, and to reduce time and cost for both the NRC and AREVA we decided to apply for a license for a larger facility so in case AREVA decides to expand, it would be able to so without further licensing.

The decision to leave open the possibility of expansion demonstrates our confidence in the revival of the U.S. nuclear energy sector and our commitment to making this revival a reality. We’re seeing a lot of promise in the nuclear market worldwide and we are taking the prudent steps to prepare for it.

Please don’t hesitate to comment if you’ve got any more questions… we’d be glad to answer them! This kind of dialogue is exactly what this blog is designed for.

Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat reprints an excellent editorial from Sunday’s Idaho Falls Post Register. The long and short of it is that it’s silly to pit one company against another when we’re talking about loan guarantees for future enrichment plants in the US… we need as many as we can get:

There are several idiotic debates under way at the moment — but pitting a uranium-processing plant in Idaho Falls against another proposed in Ohio has to top the list.

Watching the jockeying for $2 billion in federal loan guarantees makes for intriguing political theater. But it’s silly. The nation really needs both. . . .

Having three companies involved denies any one of them a chokehold on domestic fuel supply. It also provides a geographically dispersed network. . . .

This is no time for winner-takes-all politics. If Congress expands the loan-guarantee program, it does not mean more federal spending. It merely allows these companies to get financing more easily and cheaply.

We’d also like to add that these loan guarantees, in addition to costing the taxpayer nothing, would create jobs in the present for the folks who build the enrichment plants and in the long term, in steady, stable, community-supporting jobs in a high-tech and green industry.

Following our launch yesterday, we were quite pleased to see welcome messages from several of our colleagues at other nuclear blogs…

From Steve Aplin at Canadian Energy Issues:

No sooner do I get off a post about the challenges the “nuclear industry” faces when it comes to strategic communication than Areva, the French giant, launches a blog dedicated to promoting its North American operations. It went live this morning. One of the first posts, by an Areva communications executive, says there are 60,000 potential new jobs in nuclear energy in the U.S.

From David Bradish at NEI Nuclear Notes:

NEI’s former blog contributor, Jarret Adams, is one of the authors for AREVA’s first blog. Welcome and best of luck!

And from Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat:

So far as I know Areva is the first nuclear company to launch a corporate blog with the objective of fostering dialog about energy issues. Lots of energy companies have blogs, but they are often just one-way broadcasts from the corporate PR office. . . .

The blog is just being published this week so the discussion forums aren’t live yet. I’m told they are coming soon. The story can also be told now that in developing this blog, Areva’s team reached out to a fairly diverse group of energy bloggers for ideas and input. That’s an important signal that the company plans to work hard at using its listening skills.

Dialog is welcome. Welcome to the blogsphere Areva. Do well.

Thanks for the warm welcome, friends! We’re looking forward to the conversation.