As part of a broad effort to spur innovation and achieve clean energy breakthroughs, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman today announced the selection of a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for an award of up to $122 million over five years to establish and operate a new Nuclear Energy Modeling and Simulation Energy Innovation Hub. The Hub, which includes partners from universities, industry and other national labs, will use advanced capabilities of the world's most powerful computers to make significant leaps forward in nuclear reactor design and engineering.

"The Nuclear Energy Innovation Hub is a critical element in our efforts to re-establish American leadership in nuclear energy research and development," said Deputy Secretary Poneman. "We need to rev up the great American innovation machine to find solutions to our energy challenges and promote American competitiveness. With the Hubs, we are taking a page from America's great industrial laboratories in their heyday and building creative, highly-integrated research teams that can accomplish more, faster, than researchers working separately."

As part of a broad effort to expand the use of nuclear power in the United States and reduce carbon pollution, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today the Department's first conditional commitment for a front-end nuclear facility. The $2 billion loan guarantee will support AREVA's Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility near Idaho Falls, Idaho, which will supply uranium enrichment services for the U.S. nuclear power industry. "Increasing uranium enrichment in the United States is critical to the nation's energy and national security," said Secretary Chu. "Existing reactors will need additional sources of enriched uranium soon. New nuclear plants that could start to come on line as early as 2016 will also need a steady, reliable source of uranium enrichment services. AREVA's project will help to meet that demand."

The Idaho Falls facility will use advanced centrifuge technology instead of the more energy-intensive gaseous diffusion process. Although Eagle Rock will be only the second plant to use this technology in the US, it has been employed in Europe for about 30 years to enrich uranium for the commercial power market. The project's technology uses 95 percent less electricity than the gaseous diffusion technology it replaces, reducing both energy use and environmental effects.

At the recommendation of Minister Van der Hoeven of Economic Affairs and Minister Huizinga of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM), the Cabinet has agreed to submit detailed nuclear energy scenarios to the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament. This comes in response to the Ministers' commitments in the 2008 energy report (Energierapport 2008). The letter to Parliament is policy neutral and does not include any policy decisions. It concerns the following scenarios:

1a. No new nuclear power stations. In this scenario, no action is taken to build a new nuclear power station in the Netherlands in the short to medium term. The nuclear power station in Borssele is closed by 2033 at the latest.

1b. No new nuclear power stations unless inherently safe. An inherently safe nuclear power station is not expected to be on the market before 2030 and will therefore not be operational in the Netherlands before 2040.

2: Replace the nuclear power station in Borselle in 2033, when Borselle will reach the end of its lifespan, both technologically and economically speaking.

3. More nuclear power stations after 2020 (in addition to the replacement for Borselle). In this scenario one or more nuclear power stations are built in the Netherlands starting in 2020.