States are scrambling to site small modular nuclear reactors under development and funded by $452 million in federal grants; four design concepts have been submitted by companies.
Some alternative-energy developers that could gain millions in federal energy loan guarantees under the stimulus program may have shaky finances, according to financial filings and outside reviews. However, executives defend their start-ups’ strength and potential, while a U.S. Energy Dept. official is confident the feds’ investment will be repaid. Solar energy developer Solyndra, Fremont, Calif., which received a $535-million DOE guarantee last year, has not showed a profit since its 2005 founding and was reviewed negatively last month by accountant Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which questioned its future. Tyngsboro, Mass.-based Beacon Power, which has a conditional $43-million guarantee to build a 20-MW
Cost estimating by the U.S. Energy Dept. on its construction and cleanup projects needs revamping to keep overruns under control, says a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Outdated estimating guidelines have caused the agency to sometimes request too little money from Congress to complete work, adds GAO. Contractors do almost all DOE’s site construction and waste-cleanup projects. Some jobs will take decades; cost estimates total hundreds of billions of dollars. “Without a way to ensure that its contractors use best practices in generating cost estimates” and without adequate federal oversight, “DOE has effectively ceded a significant portion
As the U.S. Dept. of Energy and its contractors rev up construction of permanent repositories for nuclear wastes now lingering in aging, corroded and heavily contaminated facilities at some of the agency’s former weapons-production sites, new technology is helping cleanup crews get at the nastiest and toughest-to-remove remnants. Photo: Washington River Proltection Solutions Robotic arm system, now being tested at the Hanford nuclear waste site, will reach deep into storage tanks and break up different forms of waste. At DOE’s Hanford site in eastern Washington, officials are using insect-like crawlers to prowl the radioactive floors of 177 enormous underground waste