Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending Aug. 31. Feedback is always welcome at info@clearpathaction.org.
PROTECTING THE PIPELINE FOR MILITARY NUCLEAR JOBS
This Labor Day weekend is a timely reminder that the commercial nuclear sector isn’t just a source of carbon-free, reliable power. It’s also a pipeline for high-paying jobs for military veterans.
And with more than a third of the nuclear workforce eligible to retire in the next few years, making sure these Navy and other veterans join the U.S. commercial sector may be that much more critical.
The biggest issue is the retirement of the road warriors, specialists who travel the country to refuel nuclear plants during outages. As we begin losing more plants, we lose these guys. And as we lose them and others to retirement, it’s going to make nuclear more expensive.
Others are also opting to move overseas to help burgeoning nuclear power elsewhere. The UAE government, for example, spent about $100 million to establish a nuclear development industry and they hired a bunch of our best people to run it.
ClearPath Founder Jay Faison chronicled the experience of some military vets working at Southern Company’s Vogtle project back in January last year.
And the central point still resonates: While projects like Vogtle help attract top-skilled military talent, overall we aren’t harnessing enough of the nuclear talent we pay top dollar for in the Navy because they have nowhere to go. And providing a pipeline for our top-skilled military veterans to get the high-paying and rewarding jobs they deserve is one of the more under-acknowledged benefits of preserving and advancing the commercial nuclear fleet.
The House Rules Committee is set to meet Sept. 4 on a bill (H.R. 4606) from Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) to expedite exports of small amounts of liquefied natural gas. The exports would qualify for categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act. The bill would codify into law a final Department of Energy rule that went into effect Aug. 22 by approving the export of LNG cargoes up to 140 million cubic feet per day. This could open up new markets in the Caribbean and Central and South America.
DOE AWARDS GEOTHERMAL PROJECT FUNDING
The Department of Energy selected eight projects at national labs to receive up to $2.4 million to explore approaches to utilizing geothermal energy. These projects will focus on integrating geothermal energy into various functions to support improving grid reliability and resilience. The projects will be housed at the Brookhaven, Idaho, Lawrence Berkeley, National Renewable Energy and Oak Ridge labs.
THE PATH AHEAD
WEDNESDAY Atomic Wings Lunch and Learn – “The U.S. Nuclear Fleet: Jobs, Exports, and Clean Energy Leadership” co-hosted by DOE and the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council. Featured speakers include Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). RSVP
