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Joseph M. Hendrie, a physicist who led the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the country’s worst nuclear power accident, at Three Mile Island — a mishap that chilled Americans’ trust in nuclear energy for decades — died on Dec. 26 at his home in Bellport, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 98.
His daughter Barbara Hendrie confirmed the death.
An expert in nuclear reactor safety, Dr. Hendrie was chairman of the commission on March 28, 1979, when a commercial reactor located on an island in the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania experienced a sudden loss of cooling water and a partial meltdown of its radioactive fuel.
Two days later, on Dr. Hendrie’s advice, the governor of Pennsylvania ordered the evacuation of pregnant women and preschool children within five miles of the area.
Minimal radioactivity was released, and there were no immediate deaths. But official miscommunication and lingering confusion over the severity of the threat inflamed a long-running national debate about nuclear safety. Movie theaters that year were showing “The China Syndrome,” a hit thriller about a nuclear plant disaster. Nearly 200,000 protesters turned out in New York City six months after Three Mile Island for an antinuclear rally.
Dr. Hendrie, who was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 to lead the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the government agency in charge of nuclear power safety, came in as a proponent of nuclear energy, criticized by environmentalists as too supportive of the industry.
ImageMr. Hendrie with President Jimmy Carter, who appointed him to lead the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1977.Credit...Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum
“My biggest challenge will be to keep nuclear power as a viable energy option,” he told Newsday, his local paper, when he was appointed. He pledged to end “the tortuous and Kafkaesque hearings” on proposed nuclear plants.
But the president fired Dr. Hendrie eight months after Three Mile Island, following a blistering report by a presidential commission that called for sweeping changes in how nuclear plants were built and regulated.
The report did not fault Dr. Hendrie by name. But it was critical of the regulatory commission, saying it was “unable to fulfill its responsibility for providing an acceptable level of safety for nuclear power plants.” Mr. Carter said a change of leadership at the commission was needed “in the spirit” of the recommendations he received.
Victor Gilinsky, who served on the commission with Dr. Hendrie, described him in an interview as a nonbureaucratic type, “given to outbursts of honesty,” whose candor may have led to his dismissal.
In the days after the accident, when asked at a news conference in Maryland about worst-case scenarios, Dr. Hendrie had said it might be necessary to evacuate residents as far as 20 miles from the site. Gov. Richard L. Thornburgh of Pennsylvania was upset, Dr. Gilinsky said, and complained to President Carter. “That’s what forced him out; he was giving his honest opinion.”
Though he lost the chairman’s job, Dr. Hendrie remained one of the five members of the regulatory commission through the end of his four-year term in June 1981. In March of that year, President Ronald Reagan reappointed him chairman in an acting capacity.
He returned to the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., where he had worked for two decades before joining the regulatory commission. In the 1960s, he had helped design and build a type of research reactor, the High Flux Beam Reactor, which provided very intense beams of neutrons. Scientists from far and wide came to Brookhaven to use it for their experiments.
“He was one of those rare individuals who possessed a deep technical understanding of nuclear science and engineering and the ability to successfully manage a large and diverse work force supporting many nuclear related activities, including both theoretical and experimental work,” Joseph P. Indusi, a former colleague of Dr. Hendrie’s at Brookhaven, said in an email.
In 1984, when Dr. Hendrie became president of the American Nuclear Society, a professional group for nuclear engineers, he told its publication, Nuclear News, that he had few regrets about leaving a high-profile government career for a quieter life of research.
“On balance, I’m glad to be out of it,” he said. “The stress level is high enough so that it’s a very wearing proposition. You just drain down your internal reserves. But it’s also a very exciting enterprise, and I miss the hurrah from time to time.”
Joseph Mallam Hendrie was born on March 18, 1925, in Janesville, Wis. His father, Joseph Munier Hendrie, was an executive at General Motors who moved the family to the Detroit area. His mother, Pearl (Hocking) Hendrie, was a homemaker.
During World War II, Dr. Hendrie served in the Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific. He graduated from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland (now part of Case Western Reserve University) in 1950 with a degree in physics, then earned a Ph.D. in the same subject from Columbia University in 1957.
He met his future wife, Elaine Kostel, an instructor at an Arthur Murray dance studio in Cleveland, on a blind date. She later worked in public relations for the Navy. She died in 2019.
Besides his daughter Barbara, Dr. Hendrie is survived by another daughter, Susan Hendrie-Marais; a grandson; and a sister, Jane Heinemen.
In the first uncertain week after the Three Mile Island accident, there were fears verging on panic that the reactor could melt down and release devastating radioactivity. That never came to pass, although the full extent of the damage was not learned until years later, when it was determined that 50 percent of the reactor’s nuclear fuel had melted.
The accident was triggered by a stuck valve, compounded by human error. The result was that not enough cooling water was reaching the reactor core, which led to damage and the release of a “small amount of radioactive material,” according to the Department of Energy.
Severalstudies of long-term health effects found no increase in several types of cancer caused by radiation in the region.
Still, Three Mile Island froze the development of nuclear power in the U.S. for decades. For 32 years after the accident, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued no new permits for reactors. Since 2010, only two new reactors have come online, while a dozen shut down before their licenses expired because they were not economical.
More recently, new interest has arisen in nuclear power as the largest source of non-carbon-emitting energy at a time of heightened awareness of the climate crisis. Gallup polling last year found more support for nuclear power than at any time since 2012. The Biden administration has directed $6 billion from an infrastructure law to bail out economically shaky reactors, which provide about half of the nation’s carbon-free electricity.
A correction was made on Jan. 6, 2024: An earlier version of this obituary misstated the year of a Gallup poll that found more support for nuclear power than at any time since 2012. It was last year, not this year.
When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.
Almost exactly one year ago, NuScale Power made history as the first of a new generation of nuclear energy startups to win regulatory approval of its reactor design ― just in time for the Biden administration to begin pumping billions of federal dollars into turning around the nation’s atomic energy industry.
But as mounting costs and the cancellation of its landmark first power plant have burned through shrinking cash reserves, the Oregon-based company is laying off as much 40% of its workforce, HuffPost has learned.
At a virtual all-hands meeting Friday afternoon, the company announced the job cuts to remaining employees. HuffPost reviewed the audio of the meeting. Two sources with direct knowledge of NuScale’s plans confirmed the details of the layoffs.
By Friday evening, NuScale’s stock price had plunged more than 8% as investors sold off shares. NuScale did not respond to a call, an email or a text message seeking comment.
Surging construction costs are imperiling clean energy across the country. In just the past two months, developers have pulled the plug on major offshore wind farms in New Jersey and New York after state officials refused to let companies rebid for contracts at a higher rate.
But the financial headwinds are taking an especially acute toll on nuclear power. It takes more than a decade to build a reactor, and the only new ones under construction in the U.S. and Europe went billions of dollars over budget in the past two decades. Many in the atomic energy industry are betting that small modular reactors ― shrunken down, lower-power units with a uniform design ― can make it cheaper and easier to build new nuclear plants through assembly-line repetition.
The U.S. government is banking on that strategy to meet its climate goals. The Biden administration spearheaded a pledge to triple atomic energy production worldwide in the next three decades at the United Nations’ climate summit in Dubai last month, enlisting dozens of partner nations in Europe, Asia and Africa.
The two infrastructure-spending laws that President Joe Biden signed in recent years earmark billions in spending to develop new reactors and keep existing plants open. And new bills in Congress to speed up U.S. nuclear deployments and sell more American reactors abroad are virtually all bipartisan, with progressives and right-wing Republicans alike expressing support for atomic energy.
A rendering from the Idaho National Laboratory shows what NuScale's debut power plant was supposed to look like.
IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY
But the U.S. trails rivals like China and Russia in deploying new types of reactors, including those based on technologies that scientists working for the federal government first developed.
Until November, NuScale appeared on track to debut the nation’s first atomic energy station powered with small modular reactors. But the project to build a dozen reactors in the Idaho desert, and sell the electricity to ratepayers across the Western U.S. through a Utah state-owned utility, was abandoned as rising interest rates made it harder for NuScale to woo investors willing to bet on something as risky a first-of-its-kind nuclear plant.
In 2022, NuScale went public via a SPAC deal, a type of merger that became a popular way for debt-laden startups to pay back venture capitalists with a swifter-than-usual initial public offering on the stock market.
In its latest quarterly earnings, NuScale reported just under $200 million in cash reserves, nearly 40% of which was tied up in restricted accounts.
On a call with analysts in November, Ramsey Hamady, NuScale’s chief financial officer, said the firm expected to “take in about $50 million worth of cash from customers from work that we do.”
But the firm spent more than that in the previous three-month cycle ― a function, the executive said, of how project costs fluctuate regularly.
“This isn’t just a fixed-expense business. There’s variable expense, and there’s a lot of discretionary spending,” Hamady said. “We spend more as we have contracts, and we pull in our spending as contracts either get pushed out or delayed or whether we want to focus more on discretionary spend or nondiscretionary spend.”
Did you just lose your job at NuScale or another green energy company? Our reporter wants to hear from you. Email Alexander C. Kaufman at alexander.kaufman@huffpost.com, or text him securely on the encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 631-455-8855.
An aerial view of the core module of China's Linglong One, the world's first commercial small modular reactor, installed on Aug. 10 in Changjiang Li Autonomous County in China's Hainan province.
CHINA NEWS SERVICE VIA GETTY IMAGES
NuScale, which has four other projects proposed in the U.S. and tentative deals in at least eight other countries, isn’t the only nuclear startup navigating choppy waters.
In October, Maryland-based X-energy, which is working with the federal government to develop a next-generation reactor using gas instead of water for cooling, cut part of its workforce and scrapped plans to go public.
In September, California-based Oklo appeared to lose a more than $100 million contract to build its its liquid-metal-cooled “micro-reactors” at an Air Force base in Alaska, as the independent Northern Journal newsletter first reported. But the Defense Department said in a statement that the deal was never finalized, and that the bureaucratic change that took place in the fall and appeared to revoke Oklo’s contract was a misunderstood procedural technicality.Oklo said it’s on track with plans to start selling shares on the New York Stock Exchange later this year.
Nor are the nuclear industry’s high-tech newcomers the only ones with issues.
The U.S. utilities that operate the world’s largest fleet of traditional reactors balked last month at the Biden administration’s proposed regulations for making clean hydrogen fuel. Constellation, the country’s top nuclear operator, said the rules rendered existing reactors ineligible for a lucrative tax credit for making hydrogen with carbon-free electricity, and threatened to sue the administration.
The first fuel loading at the Consumer Power Company of Michigan's Palisades Plant Unit 1, Calvert, Michigan, 1974. The Palisades station shut down last year as natural gas gobbled up its share of the electricity market. The plant's new owner, and the state of Michigan, want to work with the Biden administration to restore power production at the Palisades nuclear station.
SMITH COLLECTION/GADO VIA GETTY IMAGES
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago triggered an energy shock as European democracies scrambled to find alternatives to buying natural gas from Moscow. The constant need to replenish pipelines using a fuel with a wildly fluctuating price put a new premium on nuclear energy’s steady 24-hour output without needing refueling for two years or more. To boot, nuclear reactors don’t produce planet-heating emissions, and they generate orders of magnitude more electricity, more frequently and on less land, than solar panels or wind turbines.
Yet as the U.S. and its allies sanctioned the oil and gas exports funding Russia’s war chest, the Kremlin’s state-owned nuclear company, Rosatom, has remained immune, since American and European reactors depend on fuel that it enriches. Russia is building most of the new reactors in the works in places like Bangladesh, Egypt and Turkey, and just signed a new deal for more in India.
China, meanwhile, is constructing more reactors at home than nearly all the world combined, and built four large-scale reactors using the leading new American design before the U.S. could complete its first.
Former President Donald Trump banned U.S. nuclear companies from working in China, a prohibition Biden has maintained. In December, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban Russian uranium imports. While it’s unlikely to become law, the U.S. last year finally took the first step toward supplying its own nuclear fuel again.
At an industrial site in Ohio this past autumn, the private company that succeeded what was once the U.S. government’s in-house nuclear fuel enricher began producing the American-made alternative to a special kind of uranium fuel that companies like Oklo need. In just the last few months, three new uranium mines have entered into production in Arizona and Utah.
There’s a clear demand. The price of uranium eclipsed $91 per pound this week for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA Dept. of Environmental Protection Commonwealth News Bureau Room 308, Main Capitol Building Harrisburg PA., 17120
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 01/2/2024
CONTACT: DEP Newsroom 717-787-1323
DEP Highlights National Radon Action Month, Provides Free Radon Test Kits Testing for radon is one of the easiest actions Pennsylvanians can take to keep their homes safe and families healthy
Harrisburg, PA – January is National Radon Action Month, marking a time of increased outreach and public awareness for this serious health hazard.
Radon is a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas that occurs naturally through the breakdown of uranium in soil and rocks. It can seep into homes through cracks in basements and foundations, then build up inside to concentrations many times the recommended level.
“Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer after smoking in the United States, and is a serious concern within the Commonwealth,” said Jessica Shirley, Interim Acting Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). “The Department of Environmental Protection remains committed to working with home builders, school districts, realtors, and other Pennsylvania departments to address radon issues and keeping all Pennsylvanians safe.”
Radon is responsible for an estimated 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year in the U.S., according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and about 40 percent of Pennsylvania homes have radon levels above the EPA action level of 4.0 pCi/L (picocuries per liter). While radon problems may be more common in some regions, there is potential for any home to have high radon levels.
Pennsylvania is particularly prone to elevated radon levels, and the only way homeowners can know for certain if they have a radon problem is to test their home. DEP recommends that all homes, public and private buildings get tested. The best time to test is during the colder months, when homes and buildings are closed and radon is most likely to be trapped and build up to higher levels.
DEP and the American Lung Association are working together to provide radon test kits to Pennsylvania residents who have not yet tested their homes for this dangerous gas. Free radon test kits are available throughout the Commonwealth from the American Lung Association, while supplies last. Test kits are funded through a grant from DEP and the EPA State Indoor Radon Grant Program.
“Radon in homes is more common than many people think. Exposure to radon shouldn’t be taken lightly because it is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States,” said Kevin M. Stewart, Director of Environmental Health for the American Lung Association. “The good news is that it is easy to test for radon. Do-it-yourself test kits are simple to use and inexpensive.”
Radon test kits are also available at many home improvement and hardware stores, as well as from Pennsylvania-certified radon laboratories. Radon test kits typically cost approximately $20-$30. Completed test kits are sent to a Pennsylvania-certified lab where the sample is analyzed, and the results are sent to the home or building owner. Homeowners are also able to hire a state-certified radon testing company to do the testing for them. The public is encouraged to call DEP’s Radon Division at 717-783-3594, or the Radon Hotline at 800-237-2366, for help with interpretation of their test results and what follow-up action may be necessary.
Permanent radon mitigation systems typically cost between $800 and $1,200 and require minimal maintenance. A list of state-certified radon contractors, labs, and testers is available on DEP’s website. The list is also available by calling 1-800-23-RADON.
Cofrentes nuclear power plant is pictured before a storm in Cofrentes, near Valencia, Spain, September 15, 2021. REUTERS/Eva Manez/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
MADRID, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Spain on Wednesday confirmed plans to close the country's nuclear plants by 2035 as it presented energy measures including extended deadlines for renewable projects and adjusted renewable auctions.
The management of radioactive waste and dismantling of the plants, whose shut down will begin in 2027, will cost about 20.2 billion euros ($22.4 billion) and will be paid for by a fund supported by the plants' operators, the government said.
The future of the country's nuclear plants, which generate about a fifth of Spain's electricity, was a hot issue during the recent electoral campaign, with the conservative opposition People's Party (PP) pledging to reverse the planned phase-out. More recently, one of the main business lobbies called for extending the use of these plants.
Among other measures were changes to the rules governing development of new green energy projects and renewables auctions.
The government agreed to extend key administrative deadlines for new projects. The deadline to obtain a building permit, for example, was increased by six months to 49 months.
Renewable auctions may now include qualitative criteria to take into account social and environmental standards to "recognise the added value of European products," the Energy Ministry said in a statement.
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against NuScale Power Corporation (SMR) on Behalf of Investors – Nationally Ranked Investors’ Rights Firm Holzer & Holzer, LLC Encourages Investors With Significant Losses to Contact the Firm
ATLANTA, Dec. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Holzer & Holzer, LLC informs investors that a shareholder class action lawsuit has been filed against NuScale Power Corporation (“NuScale” or the “Company”) (NYSE: SMR). The lawsuit alleges that Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company's business, operations, and prospects throughout the Class Period and misled investors by failing to disclose that (I) because of the effect of inflationary pressures on the cost of construction and power, the Company and UAMPS would be unable to sign up enough subscribers to fulfill the CFPP; (2) Standard Power did not have the financial ability to support its agreement with NuScale; and (3) as a result, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. throughout the Class Period.
If you bought NuScale shares between March 15, 2023 and November 8, 2023 and suffered a significant loss on that investment, you are encouraged to discuss your legal rights by contacting Corey Holzer, Esq. at cholzer@holzerlaw.com or by toll-free telephone at (888) 508-6832 or you may visit the firm’s website at www.holzerlaw.com/case/nuscale/ to learn more.
The deadline to ask the court to be appointed lead plaintiff in the case is January 16, 2024.
Holzer & Holzer, LLC, an ISS top rated securities litigation law firm for 2021 and 2022, dedicates its practice to vigorous representation of shareholders and investors in litigation nationwide, including shareholder class action and derivative litigation. Since its founding in 2000, Holzer & Holzer attorneys have played critical roles in recovering hundreds of millions of dollars for shareholders victimized by fraud and other corporate misconduct. More information about the firm is available through its website, www.holzerlaw.com, and upon request from the firm. Holzer & Holzer, LLC has paid for the dissemination of this promotional communication, and Corey Holzer is the attorney responsible for its content.
Preliminary data from the rooftop solar industry shows a steep drop in installations and widespread job losses since April. That’s when the PUC’s changes to the net energy metering program took effect, slashing the compensation new solar customers receive for the excess power they feed into the grid.
The commission sided with utilities, organized labor and consumer advocates who argued that incentives were so generous that solar customers weren't paying their fair share to maintain the power grid, raising electricity rates for lower-income households and renters without solar arrays.
It’s not a surprise that eviscerating the financial incentives for consumers to invest in solar power would cause sales to plummet. But it’s still incredibly disappointing to see the outcome of state regulators’ wrecking-ball approach play out so predictably.
The analysis by the California Solar & Storage Assn. found that sales of rooftop systems in the state have dropped between 77% and 85% since April. That’s backed up by data from Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric showing that customers' applications to connect their solar systems to the grid dropped between 66% and 83% in the months since incentives were reduced, compared with the same time period in 2022.
The industry group forecasts that 17,000 jobs — one-fifth of all solar jobs in California — could be lost by the end of 2023 as the reduction in incentives comes on top of high interest rates and inflation. That’s a steeper decline than the industry experienced in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic brought most solar installations to a halt.
Undermining the rooftop solar market is the opposite of what California should be doing to combat climate change. The world recorded its hottest year in 2023 and is experiencing worsening storms, heat waves and wildfires and other disasters. Yet, state regulators are doubling down.
Last month, the five-member panel of commissioners appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom voted to slash solar incentives again, this time making it far less financially viable for apartment buildings, schools, strip malls, farms and small businesses to go solar. These decisions serve the interests of the state's three big investor-owned utilities, who want to get solar electricity from large-scale arrays in the desert where it can be generated more cheaply. Organized labor also stands to benefit from the change. As the rooftop market falters, there will be more need for union-built solar projects to help the state meet its renewable energy goals.
The gutting of rooftop solar incentives isn’t hurting only the local regional companies that install residential systems. It’s also dragging down big, publicly traded companies like Enphase Energy that supply the equipment used in rooftop arrays.
Keeping solar financially viable and affordable for as many Californians as possible to generate renewable energy on their homes, apartments, businesses, schools and churches isn’t too much to ask. It’s an imperative for our planet.
Newsom and his PUC appointees should keep an eye on this alarming decline in solar jobs and installations and, if it continues, intervene. You can’t be a leader in the fight against climate change by crashing the solar market. It’s not too late to reverse course, reestablish strong consumer incentives for solar systems with battery storage and stem the damage to a cornerstone of California’s clean energy future.
The Massachusetts Medical Society, publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine, says further decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station should be put on hold to wait for research into the public health consequences.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a $28,000 civil penalty to XCEL NDT of Gretna, Nebraska, for three violations of NRC security requirements associated with the use of radioactive materials. The company uses radioactive materials for industrial radiography to perform non-destructive testing of materials.
The NRC identified the apparent violations of agency requirements following an inspection after a company vehicle containing radioactive materials was stolen from a temporary jobsite in Billings, Montana, last year. The vehicle and the radioactive material were recovered that same day.
Details of the inspection and the apparent violations were documented in an August 2023 report.
In October, a regulatory conference was conducted at the NRC Region IV office in Arlington, Texas, with company officials to discuss the apparent violations, their significance, their root causes, and the company’s corrective actions. The conference was closed to public observation because it involved security-related information.
Based on the information developed during the inspection and provided during the conference, the NRC determined that three violations of NRC requirements occurred, and a civil penalty was warranted.
The company has 30 days to pay the fine, dispute the fine, or request involvement from a neutral third-party mediator to resolve the issue.
