Chairman Barton, Ranking Member Boucher and distinguished members of the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, my name is Randy Hutchinson. I am the Senior Vice President for Nuclear Business Development for Entergy Nuclear. 

Entergy is a large electric utility with 2.5 million customers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, has more than 30,000 megawatts of generating capacity, and is a large national nuclear operator.

We’re seeing a nuclear renaissance for three reasons:

First, performance of the nation’s nuclear plants has improved dramatically. Plants have continued to operate safely. Capacity factors have improved from approximately 65 percent in the late 1980s to about 90 percent today. That increase in output from the 1990s to today is equal to adding twenty-three 1,000-megawatt nuclear plants to the nation’s power grid — enough to meet about 30 percent of the growth in demand during that period.

Consolidation in the industry is resulting in fewer and larger nuclear operators with far greater nuclear management focus and expertise. Five years ago, 46 operators operated the nation’s 103 nuclear plants. Today 24 operators do.

It is like buying a mutual fund — you can benefit from highly focused management and sharing of talent and expertise.

The second reason for the nuclear renaissance is higher natural gas prices. Nuclear’s production costs dropped to a record low in 1999 of 1.8 cents a kilowatthour, compared to 2 cents for coal, and 3-5 cents for oil and gas. Nuclear provides a hedge against large price swings in gas and oil.