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In a meeting held on the 18 and 19 November, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) council, representing the fusion project's seven international partners: China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the US, did not automatically confirm the baseline cost, schedule, and design of ITER as expected.

Instead council members requested ITER staff to reevaluate the technical and organizational risks associated with the baseline proposal, particularly regarding the manufacturing and building schedule and report back in three months.

The concern is that the schedule, which calls for the reactor to be built and operational by 2018, may be too optimistic, and as Daniel Clery reported in Science, the cost could be much higher than the ITER partners expect.

Paul Guinnessy

A brief roundup of policy news stories last week indicates that political temperatures are rising in the run up to new climate talks, and that Iran is slowly becoming more flexible over opening up its nuclear program.

Climate bill faces hurdles in Senate
The climate-change bill that has been moving slowly through the Senate will face a stark political reality when it emerges for committee debate on Tuesday reports the Washington Post: With Democrats deeply divided on the issue, unless some Republican lawmakers risk the backlash for signing on to the legislation, there is almost no hope for passage.

US Envoy: No bilateral climate deal with China
Todd Stern, President Obama's envoy for climate change has dashed hopes of a bilateral deal on climate change during this month's presidential trip to China in an interview with NPR's Louisa Lim.

"There is no agreement per se," Stern says, adding that there had been no intention of cutting a separate bilateral deal.

Obama's trip will focus on clean energy cooperation, and aligning Chinese and American positions ahead of the upcoming global climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The US is pushing for China to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

"They absolutely have to cap their emissions in the sense of having them reduced significantly as compared to where their trend line is," Stern said. "China could make a reduction twice as ambitious as the US is doing, and that would still involve their emissions going up somewhere from where they are now."

But Beijing is resisting US pressure, arguing that it is using other measures. It already has announced a goal of improving energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2010. China also is planting trees over an area the size of California.

Jiahua Pan of the Institute for Urban & Environmental Studies in, Beijing says that negotiations will depend largely on decisive mitigation action being taken by the developed nations. China will have every reason to follow suit if the rich nations demonstrate leadership and commit to more substantial cuts than they have offered so far.

India pushes for common responsibility
Rajendra K. Pachauri says in Nature that India wants to be a constructive partner in Copenhagen negotiations on climate change. The country is taking domestic action even though it cannot accept mandatory emissions limits.

UN inspectors visit uranium enrichment facility in Iran
UN inspectors have received their first formal look inside Iran's once-secret uranium enrichment facility that has raised western suspicions about the extent of their nuclear program.

The semi-official Mehr news agency reported that the four-member team visited the heavily protected facility, carved into a mountainside south of Tehran. The tour marked the first independent examination of the site, but no conclusions about the state of the facility are expected until after the next IAEA committee meeting.

Chart: How the ‘Darpa for Energy’ is slicing its $150-Million pie
Wired.com has created a chart describing which area's the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency will be handing out more than $150 million for what the agency describes as “bold, transformational” energy projects (see also DOE awards 'Smart Grid' and ARPA-E grants).

President Obama's 28 October announcement of $3.4 billion in grants to begin a major upgrading of the US electricity grid came a day after the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) grant program at DOE named the winners of its first $151 million in grants to support 37 high-risk research projects that could advance novel clean energy technologies.

The 100 "smart grid" grants will begin a modernization of the US electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system--a process that when completed will save consumers $20 billion over 10 years on their utility bills, Obama said. Ranging from $200 million to less than $1 million, the awards will pay for utilities to install 18 million "smart" meters, covering 13% of US homes--devices that will allow customers to monitor their electricity use in real time, and as utilities begin to move to dynamic electricity pricing, to program new smart appliances to operate when rates are low.

The awards will also pay for the replacement of 200,000 transformers and the automation of 700 substations--5% of the US total--improvements that will allow utilities to respond faster and more effectively to restore service after power interruptions. More than 850 sensors called phasor measurement units are to be installed, providing improved monitoring of conditions on the grid and helping prevent minor disturbances from cascading into power outages or blackouts. Awardees, who were chosen from 400 grant applicants, are putting up another $4.7 billion of their own capital for the grid upgrades.

Chu traveled to Google Inc's Mountain View, California, headquarters to unveil the ARPA-E grants, which are to support R&D for especially high-risk, but potentially high-payoff concepts for producing clean energy. All 37 awards went for projects proposed by universities or to small and large companies, though a number of DOE national laboratories were teamed with awardees. ARPA-E will award its remaining fiscal year 2010 funding of $249 million through a second solicitation later this year. As with the smart grid program, ARPA-E's resources are from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"We're here to announce a portfolio of bold new research projects, any one of which could do for energy what Google did for the Internet," Chu said. Renewable energy, energy storage, industrial and building efficiency, petroleum-free vehicles, and carbon capture are all represented. DOE received 3700 responses--"a stunning level of interest"-- Chu said, when it first solicited expressions of interest in the ARPA-E program in April. The agency invited 300 of those to submit full proposals, which were put before 500 expert reviewers.

David Kramer

The White House nominated last week Arun Majumdar to lead the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

Based on the Defense Department's DARPA research agency, ARPA-E was established in 2007 as a semi-autonomous agency within the US Department of Energy to conduct high-risk, high-reward energy research. Funding for the agency was only delivered in February this year.

Majumdar is currently the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a material scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. Steven Chu, the head of DOE, used to be his boss.

Unlike most research organizations, Chu has stated that he hopes ARPA-E funded research centers will be based around attracting the best people to work on problems—they won't be hired for specific projects. It's a similar working principle to how the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb worked.

Under Chu's vision highly qualified scientists will stay at ARPA-E centers for about 5 years before moving back to academia or industry.

Majumdar helped shape several strategic initiatives in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy as well as energy storage, and has experience in testifying in front of Congress—he spoke to them on how to reduce energy consumption in buildings.

He has served on the advisory committee of the National Science Foundation's engineering directorate, was a member of the advisory council to the materials sciences and engineering division of DOE's Basic Energy Sciences, and was an advisor on nanotechnology to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

More importantly for this position, Majumdar has been an entrepreneur, and has served as an advisor to startup companies and venture capital firms in silicon valley. This experience—between the borders of industry and science—should help build on Chu's strategic vision for ARPA-E; and on how the agency will interact between academia and business. One of his hardest challendges will be deciding how "high-risk" research will be at these centers.

Paul Guinnessy

Politics in Germany went nuclear last week as Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a member of the center-left Social Democrats (SDP) which is trailing badly in the upcoming national election, published evidence showing that the former government doctored a report on the suitability of a proposed nuclear waste storage site in Gorleben in Lower Saxony. Gabriel called the revelation a "downright scandal."

The evidence consists of a telex message from officials in chancellor Helmut Kohl's government, which was run by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The uproar is becoming an election issue as the former environment minister under Kohl is current Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is running for a second term.

Nine years ago the German government formulated plans to abandon nuclear power by 2022 as part of a governing coalition pact between the green party and SDP.

Merkel however is planning toauthorize Germany's existing nuclear plants to have their lifespan extended and build new plants, if she can form a government with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) after the election.

Merkel's case hasn't been helped by safety accident revelations at nuclear power plants and leaks at storage facilities during the summer. However, like most countries with nuclear power the most controversial issue is the nuclear waste.

According to Die Spiegel:

Gabriel told said politicians tried to cover up warnings that radioactive material could seep into groundwater, an issue that was played down in the final report. Opponents of nuclear energy have long alleged that Gorleben was chosen as a long-term storage site for political reasons before its safety had been properly determined and that alternative locations were not given proper consideration.

In reponse, Merkel has pledged to review all Gorleben files going back to the 1980s

Wolfram König, the president of Germany's Federal Office for Radiation Protection—which runs the test facility at Gorleben— stepped into the controversy by speaking out against the site's suitability as a permanent waste depository to the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.

"The feeling of confidence that there was an unbiased procedure (to choose a location for long-term storage) has now been destroyed," said König, who called for a new "transparent and fair" process to choose a permanent storage location.

Paul Guinnessy

Related Links
Krümmel Accident Puts Question Mark over Germany's Nuclear Future
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Nuclear power? Yes, maybe

In the first public meeting of the President’s Council of Advisers in Science and Technology (PCAST), US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the loss of basic science and technology funding at the nuclear-weapons labs Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore have had an inverse effect in the labs ability to attract "the best and the brightest."

During the 1990s the labs basic research funding was on an “10-year-glide-path” to be cut in half he said, which was only stopped in 1998. "To be blunt," said Chu, "the best and the brightest didn’t want to be weapons designers...they wanted to do good science."

Chu pointed out that this model—of using basic science as the carrot which would eventually lead to an interest in more applied work—has been common at all the major innovation incubators such as the Bell Laboratories or in the weapons labs early history.

How to attract high caliber staff to the weapons labs in the current climate “is an unsolved problem” said Chu, who asked for PCAST to assess ways to attract the best staff to DOE. In the meeting Chu implied that there is currently a review underway of the nuclear weapons management structure.

Chu also expanded on the principles behind his request to Congress to fund centers of excellence in energy research in which DOE would act more like a venture capitalist fund and invest in people, not in individual projects. "In World War II you just picked out outstanding people and gave them a problem and told them to solve it," he said. "They treated problems as triage. You would tackle the hard problem first and move onto the next if it didn't work." A similar attitude needs to exist in energy research he said.

"The key would be the management team and whether they are willing to take on this task," he said. "There are a couple of experiments I want to do in this regard."

Paul Guinnessy

President Obama has announced which US companies have been awarded Department of Energy stimulus money grants to build manufacturing plants for electric vehicles and batteries.

The announcement, made in Elkhart, Indiana, marks the single largest investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles ever made and could cut the cost of batteries for US-produced hybrid cars by 40%.

"If we want to reduce our dependence on oil, put Americans back to work and reassert our manufacturing sector as one of the greatest in the world, we must produce the advanced, efficient vehicles of the future," said President Obama.

Industry officials expect that this $2.4 billion investment in 25 states, coupled with another $2.4 billion in cost share from the 48 award winners, will result directly in the creation tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs.

"These are incredibly effective investments that will come back to us many times over—by creating jobs, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, cleaning up the air we breathe, and combating climate change," said US Energy Secretary Steven Chu at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina. "They will help achieve the President's goal of putting one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015. And, most importantly, they will launch an advanced battery industry in America and make our auto industry cleaner and more competitive."

The new awards are split into three separate programs:

Of the 48 funded projects, 18 worth more than $1 billion will be based in Michigan, which has been hard hit by the recession. Two companies, A123 (for lithium-ion battery packs) and Johnson Controls (for nickel-cobalt battery cells and packs), will receive more than $550 million to establish a manufacturing base in the state for advanced batteries, and two others, Compact Power and Dow Kokam, will receive a total of over $300 million for manufacturing battery cells and materials that will be used by the Chevrolet Volt electric car. The DOE placed an order for 600 Chevy Volts for testing purposes as part of the testing program.

Large automakers based in Michigan, including GM, Chrysler, and Ford, will receive a total of more than $400 million to manufacture thousands of advanced hybrid and electric vehicles as well as batteries and electric drive components. And three Michigan Universities — the University of Michigan, Wayne State University in Detroit, and Michigan Technological University in Houghton in the Upper Peninsula — will share $10 million for education and workforce training programs.

In Indiana, EnerDel received $118.5 million to expand lithium ion battery manufacturing in order to supply the electric car companies Fisker Automotive and Norway's Think. Saft America will receive $95.5 million to produce lithium ion cells and batteries for industrial, agricultural, and defense vehicles.

Although no Japanese or European car comapny benefited directly from the stimulus funds, Nissan, which earlier this week announced an all-electric car called "Leaf" will indirectly benefit, as DOE will invest $100 million in eTec's and Nissan's charging stations to see how reliable they work with Leaf and other electric vehicles.

Paul Guinnessy

The US Department of Energy has informally denied USEC Inc. a loan guarantee to build an uranium enrichment facility called the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon Ohio, but has given the company an option to withdraw and resubmit their application at a later date.

"We are shocked and disappointed by DOE's decision.  The ACP met the original intent of the loan guarantee program in that it would have used an innovative, but proven, technology, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and created thousands of immediate jobs across the US" says USEC's President and Chief Executive Officer John K. Welch.

Matt Rogers, a senior advisor to Energy Secretary Steven Chu disagrees. "Primarily the cost of the project has increased significantly since USEC's initial proposal," he says. "At this point in time there are not enough available funds to complete the project."

The proposed Piketon plant would have used thousands of centrifuges in a cascade arrangement to enrichment uranium, a technique that hasn't been used in the US for decades.

Over the last five years USEC had been working on some small test centrifuges and had been testing a production ready-cascade for the last couple of months. Although the prototype has been running for 235,000 machine hours, the failure of the prototype cascade during its initial test run seems to have given DOE's review board second thoughts about funding the plant.

USEC was originally formed to buy weapons-grade uranium from Russia in the 1990s and blend it down to be burned in civilian reactors. It also owns the Paducah uranium gas diffusion plant. The ACP was to have replaced Paducah, which is due to close sometime in the next 5-10 years.

USEC gambled heavily to the tune of $1.5 billion in researching and constructing ACP as it supplies more than half the US reactors with fuel, and a quarter of the world market. On top of another $1 billion USEC expected to spend, the project needed more than $2 billion in loan guarantees from DOE to finish the plant.

"It is unclear how DOE expects to find innovative technologies that assume zero risk, but the ACP clearly meets the energy security and climate change goals of the Obama administration," says Welch.

Rogers says DOE believes USEC should withdraw its application and continue to work on the prototypes for the next 12-18 months before re-submitting its application. As part of this deal, DOE will provide USEC with a detailed review of why their initial application failed. If the company agrees to withdraw, DOE will give USEC $45 million towards R&D.

"Should USEC accept this offer, it would allow them to continue operations, maintenance, and research activities at Piketon and Oak Ridge, and give USEC additional time to strengthen the technical and financial aspects of the application should USEC decide to resubmit it," he adds.

If USEC does not withdraw their application then DOE's review board will formally reject the loan later this week, and USEC would not be able to reapply at a later date.

 Welch says that USEC has not yet made a decision over what action to take, and has hired outside consultants to evaluate their next move, which may include selling a stake to the French nuclear company Areva, Inc.—which has also applied for a DOE loan guarantee to build an US enrichment plant. The $2 billion Areva plant—scheduled to be built at Idaho Falls—is still going through the licensing procedures and does not expect to start construction until 2011. Another plant in New Mexico by the international group URENCO under the name Louisiana Energy Services is still on target to go operational later this year.

The most immediate impact at USEC will be redundancies. "With DOE's decision, we are now forced to initiate steps to demobilize the project.  We deeply regret the impact this decision will have on all those affected, but as we have stated in the past, a DOE loan guarantee was the path forward to completing financing for the project." USEC says that the plant was expected to create more than 8,000 jobs.
 

Paul Guinnessy

As part of President Obama's efforts to improve energy efficiency the White House announced new efficiency standards on fluorescent and incandescent lighting yesterday.

"I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and our businesses," said Obama. "Between 2012 and 2042, these new standards will save consumers up to $4 billion a year, conserve enough electricity to power every home in America for 10 months, reduce emissions equal to the amount produced by 166 million cars each year, and eliminate the need for as many as 14 coal-fired power plants."

Obama directly linked raising the US economy's productivity to energy efficiency in his speech, announcing that a $346 million program in the stimulus bill to improve the development, deployment, and use of energy-efficient technologies in residential and commercial buildings would be speeded up.

"By adopting [available] technologies in our homes and businesses, we can make our buildings up to 80 percent more energy efficient—or with additions like solar panels on the roof or geothermal power from underground, even transform them into zero-energy buildings that actually produce as much energy as they consume," he said.

"We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy. We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc, or we can create jobs utilizing low-carbon technologies to prevent its worst effects. We can cede the race for the 21st century, or we can embrace the reality that our competitors already have: The nation that leads the world in creating a new clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy."

This was the third event on energy that the White House had organized in the last three days, and another event with Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu is scheduled for today. The new energy push comes after the House of Representatives passed a climate change bill on Friday and the Senate starts working on passage of its own version of the bill.

Paul Guinnessy

Signaling the importance of resolving the nuclear waste issue to the future of nuclear energy, President Obama has nominated a single individual to perform both functions at the Department of Energy. Warren “Pete” Miller, a long-time senior official at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was named by Obama to become assistant secretary for nuclear energy, and director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

Both appointments require Senate confirmation. OCRWM has managed the long-stalled DOE effort to build a repository for spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. But the Obama administration intends to scrap the controversial project and look at other options for dealing with the waste from the country’s 104 operating commercial reactors, as well as the high-level radioactive wastes that were generated by DOE’s nuclear weapons production.

The various options are to be reviewed by a blue-ribbon committee whose members have yet to be named. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said there is plenty of time to figure out a new course of action, and he has indicated that the administration is open to reprocessing spent fuel, provided that a new technology can be developed that does not produce separated plutonium, as do the processes used by Japan and France. Miller, who retired from LANL in 2001, has most recently been a part-time professor at Texas A&M University.