News & Events

Good morning, and welcome to this year’s Nuclear Energy Assembly. I’m honored to have the opportunity, once again, to highlight the achievements of this remarkable industry, especially the outstanding performance of our nation’s nuclear power plants.

Today’s excellent nuclear plant performance is the result of many years of hard work. The industry started with a strategic vision, translated that vision into discrete actions, or tactics, and ultimately achieved the world-class performance level we envisioned at the beginning.

For example, a nuclear plant capacity factor of 70 percent once was cause for celebration. Last year, the industry average was nearly 91 percent.

Safety performance also is world-class—clear evidence that safety and efficiency go hand in hand. We must continue the relentless focus on safety that has brought the nuclear energy industry to this high level of performance. “Complacency” has no place in our lexicon—and certainly no place in the way we operate and maintain our nuclear reactors.

Working together, the nuclear industry has achieved many other significant goals—for example, license renewal, safety-focused regulation, and a presidential recommendation to develop Yucca Mountain as a repository for used nuclear fuel.

A decade ago, license renewal was a long-term goal, and the outlook was cloudy. Now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed the licenses for eight reactors. Fifteen more are under review and license renewal applications for another 25 reactors will be submitted between June of this year and April 2005. That is nearly half the operating nuclear power reactors in the United States. We expect that virtually all U.S. nuclear reactors will pursue license renewal and that the NRC will continue to make the review process more efficient.