From the News! – Your Daily News

Katherine Adraneda
Philippine Star

The practice of “green initiatives” has invaded many local industries, even the way a mobile network runs its cell cites.

Smart Communications Inc. has been cited as the top mobile network operator in the world for wind-powered cell sites, besting 24 other mobile operators across the developing world that use renewable energy sources, according to a survey of the GSMA Development Fund.

The GSMA said their research has found out that Smart is the “most advanced” mobile network operator globally “in terms of wind-powered base transceiver stations.”

“Among the leading mobile network operators we surveyed for our Green Power for Mobile program, Smart emerged as the operator that has most extensively deployed stand-alone wind-powered cell sites,” said Dawn Haig-Thomas, director of the GSMA Development Fund.

Smart deployed the country’s first wind-powered cell site in 2006 on Malapascua Island in Cebu.

As of Aug. 30, a total of 49 Smart cell sites across the country are running on wind power and wind-solar energy.

The mobile network company said renewable energy sources now serve as a reliable, efficient and economic alternative to fuel in powering generator sets used for cell sites in remote locations.

Smart said among the benefits of using renewable energy sources is reduced operational cost, even as it is able to increase voice and data coverage in areas, which are beyond the reach of power grids.

The GSMA Development Fund was founded in 2005 to identify and implement new uses for mobile communications to help people with limited access.

One of its focus areas is energy, but it recently launched the Green Power for Mobile program in a bid to provide mobile operators with expertise to support the deployment of base stations that use renewable energy

Smart president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno said they recognize the importance of developing and tapping renewable energy sources to power their off-grid base stations, especially in the wake of stepped-up efforts to protect the environment and mitigate impacts of climate change.

In fact, he revealed that Smart is eyeing to have 74 cell sites in different areas nationwide that will be powered by renewable energy by the end of the year.

Of this, he added that 47 cell sites would be run by wind energy while 27 cell sites would be “hybrid” or using both wind and solar energy.

Of the 74 Smart cell sites, 17 would be located in Northern Luzon; 21 in Southern Luzon; 25 in the Visayas; and 11 in Mindanao.

To date, Smart has more than 6,000 cell sites nationwide.

“Smart is happy to be part of this effort. As the Philippines’ leading wireless services provider, we recognize that this initiative is the right thing to do from both a business and environmental standpoint. We hope more telecom operators will join this effort to reduce carbon emissions and promote more climate-friendly practices,” Nazareno said.

Meanwhile, Mario Tamayo, head of the Smart Network Service Division Group, disclosed that 50 more “green” base stations are scheduled for deployment next year, as part of the company’s efforts to maximize the use of available natural resources.

Ramon Isberto, head of the Smart Public Affairs Group, said the use of alternative energy sources to power cell sites is just one measure Smart is taking to respond to the global call to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

“We are encouraged by the results of the GSMA Development Fund survey as we continue to explore ways to adopt and implement environment-friendly measures in our operations,” Isberto said.

Donnabelle Gatdula
Philippine Star

The Philippines can save up to $3.6 billion through the use of its renewable energy resources, an official from the multi-sectoral Renewable Energy Coalition (REC) said.

In her speech during the ongoing Energy Summit, REC deputy managing director Catherine Maceda said there is a need to put in place appropriate incentives and policy framework to realize these savings.

The REC official said these savings, which would come from reduced oil imports, can be used to build classrooms, send children to school and build health centers and roads.

The country, she said, has considerable renewable energy (RE) resources which are more than sufficient to meet its growing power requirements.

In a study conducted by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Department of Energy, the country has vast renewable energy potential, including that of wind.

Wind resources can generate as much as 76,600 megawatts of potential installed capacity.

Ocean energy resource, on the other hand, has a potential capacity of about 170,000 megawatts – far exceeding the 4,350 additional power requirement of the country in the next six years.

The development of the country’s renewable energy resources, Maceda said, “will help the country achieve the government’s goal of 60 percent energy self-sufficiency by 2010 and help address environmental concerns and climate change imperatives.”

“The measure is visionary in ways that it will establish the environment that will address upcoming demands and preferences for green energy options by consumers,” she said.

Sharing country experiences in renewable energy development, Maceda said the Philippines “should learn from the experiences of other countries like Iceland and Denmark which have not only promoted energy sufficiency through their renewable energy policies, but have also become stewards of RE use in many countries.”

She cited Iceland, for instance, as sourcing 70 percent of its primary needs from renewable energy since 1999, the highest proportion in any country in the world.

The Philippines, like Iceland, has unique geological make-up that will allow it to make optimum use of renewable energy resources.

She noted that Iceland has over 200 volcanoes and 600 hot springs enabling it to harness geothermal energy. Denmark, considered the cradle of modern wind turbine industry, had 2,500 wind turbines as early as the 1900s.

Maceda also stressed that various groups and industry players have been awaiting the enactment of the renewable energy bill.

Among the country’s renewable energy sources, geothermal and hydro are relatively the most developed, accounting for 18 percent and 15 percent of total power generation.

The Philippines is also the world’s second largest producer of geothermal energy next to the United States. Aside from geothermal and hydro, the proposed Renewable Energy Act will provide the needed impetus to promote the development of the country’s wind, solar, biomass, and ocean energy sources.

Creative solutions needed

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, speaking at the same venue, called on concerned private and public sector groups to help draw up “creative solutions” to the energy crisis.

Reyes emphasized the need to “significantly reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels in the medium and long term, while cushioning the immediate impact of high oil prices on vulnerable sectors and the citizenry at large.”

He said confronting the crisis “will require a whole slew of strategic interventions in the management of energy supply and demand. We would need the cooperation of all stakeholders in thinking through the issues and in fashioning creative solutions. That is why the Energy Summit has been structured both as a listening post, where vulnerable sectors can air their concerns and suggestions, and as a venue for collaborative action planning.”

New legislation needed

Meanwhile, House committee on energy chairman Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo said he is willing to author a bill that would help cushion the impact of high oil prices.

Arroyo said Congress is keenly awaiting all inputs so that lawmakers can craft necessary legislation.

“Hopefully, this would help ensure a level playing field where oil players will earn a healthy and honorable return from fully meeting our energy needs,” he said.

Arroyo did not give details on what possible new laws will be created to address the problem of high oil prices.

Donnabelle Gatdula and Jess Diaz
Philippine Star

The government has not made any commitment on nuclear energy development despite its invitation for officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to evaluate the feasibility of commissioning the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said on Monday.

“I’m not ready to commit on anything other than studying it – which is vast and fast moving,” Reyes said.

He said the IAEA officials arrived in the country last Monday only to evaluate the government’s plan to revive its nuclear program, including rehabilitating the BNPP.

Akira Omoto, director of division for nuclear power heads the IAEA team, which includes experts from Brazil, Romania and Australia.

Reyes said the development of nuclear energy is only one of the options being eyed to address the rising power demand.

He said world energy demand is expected to increase by 50 percent in 20 years.

“IAEA is some kind of a UN sanctioned body – of which the Philippines is a member. And we are a member since we signed up during the time of US President Eisenhower for the Atoms for Peace program of UN,” he said. “They are here, upon the invitation of the DOE, to assist and advise us on what we have to do to arrive at a reasoned decision on… the mothballed (BNPP).”

Reyes pointed out that the result of the review, which will be out by Feb. 1, will only serve as a guide.

“They will not recommend to us to either open it or not to open it, or rehabilitate or not to rehabilitate. But they will advise us on what we have to do to arrive at that decision,” he said. “We are not compelled to accept any of their recommendations.

“This is not going to be a final report, otherwise it will be a continuing review on what we must do to arrive at a reasoned decision. The reason why we are going to do this is because the plant has been mothballed for 20 years, and it’s a 630-MW and we paid $2.3 billion for it, but even if it has been fully paid we have yet to generate even a single kilowatt from the plant,” he said.

He stressed that the IAEA is not a regulatory agency. “It’s a body that was set up to assist in the transferring of technology and giving advice and essentially it has a verification authority. In other words, it can visit a country and find out if there are certain violations on safety, violation on environmental standards, or violation on nuclear arms,” he said.

He said the government is still studying the feasibility of converting BNPP into a natural gas power plant. But Reyes said IAEA believes such a plan “would be difficult” to carry out.

“To set up a nuclear power plant, even if we rehabilitate, it will take about 15 years. It takes about seven years to build up your human resource. We don’t have the nuclear scientists to study, construct, design, manage and operate,” he said.

“We will not get into anything, but what we are saying is to keep the options open, get and train the people. What we do not want is a situation when we have a power shortage,” he said.

Alternative ways

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. country chairman Edgar Chua called on the government to explore other ways to deal with soaring prices like demand management, fuel diversification and supply security, emergency preparedness and oil price risk management.

“We can also reduce prices by removing value added tax (VAT) and other taxes,” Chua told delegates and participants at the Energy Summit yesterday.

But he cautioned that if oil prices reach $200 per barrel, there might be no more taxes for the government to remove.

“Wouldn’t it be better to use the windfall VAT to fund the programs that will better prepare the country and our people?” Chua said.

Meneleo Carlos, president of Federation of Philippine Industries, in his presentation called for transparency and immediate response to problems. “To be competitive, be transparent and act,” he said.

Reyes, in his opening remarks, urged the industry stakeholders to take an active stance in the drawing up of a short-term to long-term action plan in the energy sector.

“We also need to bear in mind that, regardless of the milieu, no one plans for failure — particularly on the big stage. This is why the Energy Summit is being convened in a positive, inclusive and solutions-oriented spirit. It is not a venue for finger-pointing, but for consensus-building,” he said. “Responding to the issues and concerns that have surfaced in the wake of high oil prices transcends the domain of any single sector or organization. We want everyone to enter the sessions with an open, collaborative and holistic frame of mind,” Reyes said.

Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), on the other hand, urged the Energy Summit organizers and participants to try to focus on fundamentals.

“What this summit intends to achieve, however, is pathetically unclear. It is not clear whether the main concern is to address the impact of high prices of fuel and power to consumers, or to resolve the fiscal quagmires of the government,” FDC said in a statement.

“This is because prior to the summit, the government already laid down its bottom line by rejecting calls for the scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law and the lifting of value added tax (VAT) on petroleum products,” it said. “The government is also against the overhaul of Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and has rejected calls for the cancellation of onerous IPP contracts,” FDC added.

FDC said the summit might end up as mere “talking shop” if the basic issues are not addressed.

“For how can the summit address price gouging and manipulation, which is common practice of global and local oil cartels, when the government does not want to touch the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank’s deregulation policy which effectively reduced government’s role in the industry to mere ‘monitoring?’” FDC asked.

“And how can the summit significantly reduce domestic oil prices when Mrs. Arroyo’s VAT is making local pump prices P4 higher? How can the summit reduce the cost of electricity when the government does not want to renegotiate or cancel onerous IPP contracts?”

Open to suggestions

Presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo said he is willing to listen to investors and businessmen opposed to his proposed amendment to the EPIRA.

In a statement, Arroyo, chair of the House energy committee, said he is ready to explore “all available options” to accelerate free market competition in the power sector.

“Congress and the executive branch share the common vision of transforming the country’s electric power industry into one that is truly free, fair and competitive,” Arroyo said.

“I am cognizant of the fact that the legislative route is not the only route available towards that end,” he said.

He stressed that the bottom line should be free competition among power producers and the lowest possible cost of electricity for consumers.

Arroyo is the principal author of House Bill 3124, which seeks to amend EPIRA by allowing “open access and retail competition” even if only 50 percent of the plants of state-owned National Power Corp. have been sold to private investors.

In a regime of open access and retail competition, big consumers such as malls and subdivisions could source their power needs directly from the producer that offers the best price, and not from distributors.

Under EPIRA, this arrangement will be allowed only when 70 percent of Napocor plants have been sold. The setup aims to enable the private buyers to compete among one another and prevent Napocor from dictating or even manipulating prices.

Arroyo’s proposed amendment would maintain Napocor’s dominance on half of the market.

According to industry players and big business groups, allowing Napocor to control 50-percent of the market would not really promote free competition or bring down the cost of electricity.

Contesting Arroyo’s proposal are huge business groups including the American Chamber of Commerce, European Chamber of Commerce and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce.

Also opposed to Arroyo’s proposed measure are producers of microchips, computer parts and other electronics products, who are major consumers of electricity. Former energy secretary Vincent Perez is also against the proposal.

Donnabelle L. Gatdula
Philippine Star

The Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) can work in its existing form, an official from a multilateral financing institution said.

“Broadly speaking, we can work with the existing EPIRA,” Asian Development Bank (ADB) deputy director general for South Asia Thomas Crouch told reporters at the sidelines of the Energy Summit.

Crouch warned that there are risks that could result from changes in policies and laws.

“There is always a risk attending to that if a piece of existing legislation is broadly working and is put back on the floor to be reopened and then many issues may be reopened and maybe hostage to some political process. So that is a risk that needs to be acknowledged, then recognized. And then you need some trade-offs. Can you work with the existing EPIRA? Or are we really wanting to fix every little piece of it? Or do we want to run the risk?” he said.

Crouch said there are also factors that may warrant changes in policies and rules.

“Generally, any piece of legislation can bear revisiting for two reasons: there may have gaps in the original piece of legislation that needs some fixing cause they may have been overlooked when the legislation was formulated, and secondly conditions might change,” he said.

In the case of the EPIRA, he said there is nothing wrong with studying if the law needs to be reviewed.

“EPIRA, which was in place since 2001, and with the world has changed and the Philippines has changed — so what it warrants is having a look and seeing if its needs new one or some adjusting it in some ways,” he said.

He said EPIRA provides a robust framework. “We support the thrust of the EPIRA and its approach in the restructuring of the power industry — specifically the privatization and largely there because if you could not fix the power sector, then you would not be able fix the physical imbalance.”

Crouch said ADB also supports the goal of the EPIRA. “The privatization that’s going on, the sale of assets and the recycling of those funds to pay down debt in the power sector is a very important part of the overall macroeconomic strategy. So that’s why we have been supporting the EPIRA and the restructuring of the power sector, and not just the power sector itself, but also equally perhaps more importantly from the macroeconomic stability point of view. So that’s where we’re coming from. And another major thrust is through the strengthening of the regulatory environment and the WESM — to make it a more conducive for private sector participation,” he said.

Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
Manila Times

DOMESTIC industries and power-generating companies are projected to shift to coal use in light of the increasing price of crude in the world market, an industry official said.

“Coal is a cheaper alternative to other energy mix. Coal is indigenous and we have untapped potential in our own backyard that we can explore,” Rufino Bomasang, MG Mining and Energy Corp. vice chairman, said.

He said the country’s largely untapped coal resources have the potential of producing 1,000 to 2,000 megawatts of power, equivalent to up to $2 billion in investments.

These coal resources, located in Isabela (150 to 300 megawatts), Cagayan (100 megawatts), Surigao del Sur (300 megawatts), South Cotabato (300 to 900 megawatts) and Zamboanga-Sibuguey (200 megawatts), are large enough to supply major power plants for at least 25 years, the executive said.

Bomasang said several other coal deposits in Cebu, Masbate, Catanduanes, Batan Island, Negros Occidental and Samar exist. Those in the Cotabato basin, estimated to contain huge coal resources, have yet to be fully explored at depth.

“As demand continues to increase, coal mining companies realize the need to fill the void by pursuing exploration projects around the country,” he added.

The Department of Energy said coal use in the country would rise in the near future as development contracts reach full-blown production while exploration contracts are converted to production agreements.

Consumption will also grow as new coal-fired power plants are installed and industries switch to coal because of the highly volatile price of oil.

Data from the Philippine Energy Plan’s Coal Demand and Supply Outlook showed that about 10.177 million metric tons will be used for power generation and 2.07 million will be consumed by industries next year.

However, only about a third of this figure or 3.88 million will be sourced locally. The remaining 8.36 million will be imported from countries like Indonesia, Australia and China.

Coal demand is projected to grow steadily in the next few years to about 15.28 million metric tons in 2014 with power demand reaching 13.06 million and industries accounting for another 2.22 million.

In parallel with the increase in demand, coal production is expected to go up from 3.88 million to 6.603 million by 2014.

Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo and Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
Manila Times

WITH crude oil prices scaling new highs in the international market, the promise of bio-fuels has never shone brighter. But risks lurk behind the Philippines’ recent decision to require t he shift to alternative fuels, ranging from farmland inflation to food scarcity, according to pundits.

Early this year, the government began implementing the Bio-fuels Act of 2006, the first legislation of its kind in Asia. The law mandates a minimum blend of locally sourced bio-fuels into all regular vehicle fuels. Starting with 1 percent blend in all diesel products this year, and 5 percent in all gasoline products by 2009, the required mix will be increased in subsequent years.

Bio-fuels are relatively cleaner substitutes for regular gasoline and diesel. However, locally available feedstock is limited to coconut for bio-diesel and sugarcane for bio-ethanol. Since the crops targeted for bio-fuels production are used to feed the population, some quarters have raised concerns about the potential impact that demand for the alternative would have on local pump prices and food supply.

“For now bio-diesel, unless subsidized, is more expensive to make than diesel,” Peter Lee, dean of the University of Asia and the Pacific School of Economics, said.

While bio-ethanol is cheaper, “its downward effect on oil prices may not be significant enough,” he said.

Proponents of the Bio-fuels Act have claimed that based on last year’s average oil prices and foreign-exchange rate, about P35 billion will be saved each year from the full shift to bio-fuel.

”Ethanol is cheaper as long as oil is pegged at $40 a barrel. But it has not gone down beyond this,” Lee said.

Global shift needed

Industry officials agree that bio-diesel derived from coconut is about P0.30 per liter more expensive than diesel, adding it would take a global shift toward bio-ethanol use before the alternative can pull down world oil prices, which last week rose to fresh records above $82 a barrel.

An alternative and cheaper feedstock that the government is pushing through state-owned Philippine National Oil Co.-Alternative Fuels Corp. (PNOC-AFC) is the jatropha plant. PNOC-AFC is looking to plant over 700,000 hectares of the shrub and set up bio-diesel refineries under a five-year program. The catch is it would take PNOC-AFC two years to grow and harvest the shrub.

Industry estimates show local coconut production can meet demand for bio-diesel but it would need government support to rehabilitate crops damaged earlier by storms to maximize yields.

Bio-ethanol remains a concern because of fears it may affect the country’s food chain despite its being one of the world’s top producer of the sweet commodity.

“Food versus fuel is a recognized issue that is included as a concern in the road map for bio-fuel development that needs to be addressed,” Rafael Coscol-luela, Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) administrator, said.

Only a trickle of investments

SRA is part of an inter-agency body, the National Bio-fuels Board (NBB), which is mandated to oversee the implementation of the law. Tasked to ensure the supply and quality of bio-fuels, and to recommend changes in the volume to be blended with regular fuel products, the NBB however has a measly budget of only P90 million for next year.

Observers say the body would require more if it were to exercise its authority and boost production to meet the law’s blending schedule.

”Our situation is more complicated because of the difficulty of putting contiguous areas under one ethanol plant. We’re struggling with complying with setting up new ethanol projects because we have to match investors with feedstock developers,” Coscolluela said.

For 2009, the country’s demand for bio-ethanol is seen to reach 300 million liters per day and in 2011, rise to 600 million. Because of this projected growth in demand for bio-ethanol, the country would need 15 to 20 processing plants.
So far, only two plants are under construction with a combined capacity of 75 million liters per year. The San Carlos and the First Bukidnon facilities are expected to start commercial operations next year and by 2009, respectively.

No less than the law’s principal author scored the Department of Energy for not having a clear program of implementation, which saw only a trickle of investments flow into the fledgling bio-fuels industry.

Coscolluela warned that if local bio-ethanol production does not catch up with demand, the country would have to import from other countries which would defeat one of the law’s objectives; that is, cutting down on fuel import costs.

Escalation in farm prices

Even if a strong push is made for bio-fuels use, the Philippines may see another risk in the form of an escalation in prices of prime agricultural land over the long run.

Rick M. Santos, CB Richard Ellis Ltd. managing director, said there is a big possibility that prices of farm land may go up as demand for bio-fuels like
ethanol grows.

”You’ve seen [prices] of farmland in the US drive up because of ethanol. The Philippines has a lot of agricultural land and China needs a lot of food and fuel. It could be a positive upside,” Santos said.

He however rules out any possible conflict among the industrial, residential and agricultural sectors with regard to land use, especially in the countryside.

“I see the things work hand-in-hand as you graduate from raw land to agricultural to industrial,” he said.

Liborio S. Cabanilla, University of the Philippines-Los Baños College of Economics and Management dean, said the upward pressure on land prices due to bio-fuel demand is an “over-reaction.”

”What happened in the US is that they have planted corn [a source of ethanol] in areas where it has not been planted before. In the Philippines, the sugar plantations remain sugar plantations. It’s just that the end-product has changed. There is no land substitution so to speak,” the agricultural economist said.

Besides utilizing existing sugar plantations, other sources of bio-fuel like cassava and jathropa do not require prime land.

Based on initial data gathered by Cabanilla, the plantation owners and investors are looking for marginal areas like hillsides and other seemingly
unproductive land not used for growing food crops.

”If there is any impact on land prices, it would not be significant.

[Still], we are conducting further studies on this to verify [earlier projections],” he said.

With the law’s implementation in full swing, the government has a lot to do to address the concerns plaguing its implementation. But time may no longer be crucial if too much demand for too little oil again throws the global economy into recession and sends the price of crude plummeting. By then, bio-fuels would prove to be too expensive, and its promised benefits too late.

Michael Kanellos
CNET News

A nuclear power plant hasn’t been built in the U.S. in decades, but that appears to be changing, says the CEO of the nuclear industry’s advocacy group.

Seventeen different organizations have expressed interest in building 31 new nuclear power plants in the U.S., Frank Bowman, CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and a retired admiral from the U.S. Navy, said in an interview with CNET News.com this week. Applications for four to seven nuclear plants will likely get filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this year, and eight more will probably follow next year, he said.

The planning and permit process for the first plants will take about three years, and construction should take four years or less, he said. Thus, the first of the new plants could start generating power by 2015 or 2016, he said.

As head of the NEI, Bowman is the spokesman for the nuclear industry, which went into a downturn after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. But in the past few years, global warming, rising gas prices and legislative ideas such as carbon taxation have forced governments to explore alternatives to coal, oil and gas. And mining tragedies, such as the recent accident in Utah, and news about coal-engendered pollution in China have further boosted interest in alternatives.

Although strong opposition to nuclear power remains, politically the subject has become less polarizing, Bowman said. Overall, the general reaction to the industry now is, “yes, but,” he said. That is, people can see the benefits of it, but have strong reservations when it comes to safety, disposal, proliferation and other issues.

An MIT poll earlier this year reflects his comments. Thirty-five percent of those polled said they wanted to see nuclear technology increase, up from 28 percent in 2002. Nonetheless, 40 percent opposed storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. Only 28 percent thought nuclear waste could be stored safely for long periods of time.

To this end, the nuclear industry has worked to improve its own practices and technology over the preceding decades, he said. In the past, nuclear plant builders were often vertically integrated. Each made its own components and systems. Now, many have agreed to build according to accepted standards, which should lower prices and speed up the time to build plants.

Some of the standardization ideas come from the Navy, which has used modular manufacturing techniques for years to speed up the construction of nuclear subs. (By the way, there are 104 commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S., and 103 nuclear reactors in the Navy.)

Uptime has also improved, which reduces the financial risks. Fifteen years ago, nuclear plants might have been producing electricity 75 percent of the time. Since then, that figure has risen to 95 percent.

Additionally, safety procedures and practices have changed. Nuclear operators share safety data on a quarterly basis, he noted. The industry has also tried to become more open with the public and tone down some of the insularity and intellectual arrogance that was often part of its reputation.

After Three Mile Island, the industry adopted a “Let’s dive into the foxhole’ mentality,” he said. “An accident anywhere is an accident everywhere.”

New technologies for long-term disposal are also being devised. In one scenario, nuclear waste would be reprocessed and used again as fuel. Ultimately, reuse could dramatically cut down the amount of fuel that needs to be sequestered. The U.S. government is also floating supply agreements with emerging nations. In these agreements, emerging nations would get lowly enriched uranium from the developed world, but also agree to let the developed nations and suppliers become the custodian for the waste.

To prepare for an industry expansion, the NEI, in association with utility owners and several state governments, two years ago began to put in programs to train people for the industry, such as recruiting more college students and junior college students. Ideas that have been installed or are being contemplated are ROTC-like scholarship agreements: a utility gives a student a full-ride scholarship, and the student agrees to work at a utility for a set period after graduation.

The industry is also looking at incentives to retain older workers. “Why let 55-year-olds retire?” he said.

Bowman, however, added that he doesn’t hold out a lot of hope for fusion. In fusion technology, energy is released by fusing lighter molecules. Nuclear waste and accidents are ostensibly eliminated. Start-ups have gained money to pursue their fusion ideas recently. But so far, no one has gone beyond the experimental stage.

“When I was at MIT in 1971, it was 25 years away,” he said. “It is still 25 years away.”