Supply Chains

Wind generating capacity hit new highs in 2009, but that didn’t mean much for the wind power manufacturing sector, meaning fewer “green” jobs than the Obama administration hoped to see.

After years of decline amid rising prices and fears of scarcity, natural gas as a power-generating fuel is on a rebound in the U.S., driven by new finds in Texas and the Mid-Atlantic states. These news stories highlight the trend.

Natural gas has reemerged as the choice for new electric generation, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corp. Does this raise new reliability issues?

Natural gas is back, says gas guru Bobby Hefner, and in a big way. New technologies, new discoveries, low prices, and new optimism characterize a natural gas industry that just three years ago was bemoaning its future and looking to foreign LNG imports as the industry’s salvation. Today, the gloom is gone, and the gas folks are clicking their gaseous heels in glee.

In a series of ironies, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has voted to reject an early finding that the U.S. can adequately manage nuclear reactor spent fuel, in the wake of the Obama administration’s decision to pull the radioactive plug on Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The vote by the majority Republicans on the commission effectively puts a temporary ban on new nuclear reactor construction in the U.S.

U.S. wind power appears becalmed, partially stymied by transmission constraints, and also by financing difficulties in the current recession. Read the details.

If a nuclear revival is to happen, it will depend on understanding the global nature of the supply chains that support it, argues a U.S. conservative think tank.

Everything you want to, or should, know about uranium mining and processing is in a new book by Tom Zoellner, not including the terrifying threat of crocodiles in northern Australia.

Even as hype about the U.S. nuclear renaissance is quieting down—a result of economic woes and unrealistic expectations about political and regulatory developments—some developments remain. As these stories from the nation’s media suggest, the building of new nuclear plants in the U.S. may move ahead at a slower, more measured pace.

Inventory is expensive. It sucks up, and locks up, cash. How can utility managers save inventory money? Here are some possibilities from experts in inventory management.