ANI Increases Domestic Liability Insurance Limit

The federal Price-Anderson Act, enacted in 1957, requires that U.S. licensees of nuclear power facilities maintain financial protection equal to the maximum available amount provided by the private insurance market (ANI). In 1977, the Price-Anderson Act was amended to create a second insurance program for the commercial nuclear power industry, using what is known as retrospective premiums.

Therefore, effective January 1, 2010, the total amount available for third-party nuclear liability claims in the event of an accident at a commercial nuclear power reactor is approximately $12.6 billion––the largest amount of nuclear liability capacity of any country in the world.

ANI representatives attended the NEI annual conference––Nuclear Energy Assembly––held May 18-20 in Washington, DC. George Turner President and CEO of ANI also attended the NEI Board meeting held prior to the conference. This is the nuclear industry’s state-of-the-industry meeting. The theme for this year’s meeting was “Investing in a Clean Energy Future.”

Approximately 400 industry leaders heard a number of speakers including Congressional representatives Steny Hoyer (House Majority Leader), Peter Visclosky (Water and Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman), JameClyburn (House Majority Whip) and Senators Robert Bennett, Ben Nelson and Lisa Murkowski all of whom shared their views on the nuclear industry. These Congressional leaders consider nuclear energy to be crucial to helping achieve US energy independence and combating the threat of global climate change. They also voiced strong support for nuclear power because it enhances US energy security without emiting greenhouse gases.

The State-of-the-Industry was reported as strong, robust and growing. Performance of US nuclear plants continues to be excellent, representing 75% of US carbon free electricity and about a fifth of total output. Capacity factors remained over the 90% mark in 2008 with power uprates of 726 megawatts approved last year and more than 2800 additional megawatts in uprates expected by 2013. Public opinion surveys continue to show that the American public recognize nuclear plants as safe and secure with two-thirds of the public giving the industry high marks for safety. Conference attendees also discussed the status of new construction and operating licenses and noted that three more applications for 5 units were expected during 2009 adding to the existing 17 applications for 26 reactors already submitted. It was reported that the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission), has now granted 52 license renewals with the expectation that all plants will apply for extensions.

Representatives from India and the UK spoke on new build outside of the US. In the UK the issue of climate change and the threat of global warming, combined with nuclear power’s low carbon footprint, is causing the British to move toward new nuclear. With 15% of their electricity currently from nuclear and with all of their stations except one due to be shut down by 2025, 11 sites have been nominated in the UK to host new nuclear power stations. In India the call is to raise nuclear from 2.5% to 20% over the next 20 years. Some consider the recent US-India agreement on commercial use of nculear technology to present substantial market opportunities for US companies.

Old Shippingport Pics

One of ANI’s employees received recognition, recently, from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for a donation of historical photographs depicting the Shippingport Atomic Power Station that was formerly located in Beaver County, Pennsylvania adjacent to the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station.

Stan Focht, ANI’s Director of International Engineering, was formerly a Reactor Engineer at the Shippingport Station. There was also recognition for the help that this donation provided in guiding FirstEnergy through the national historic Preservation Act process. Below are just a few of the photographs that Stan donated. For further information, see Manuscript Group 508: Shippingport Atomic Power Station Collection at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's web site.

For the third consecutive year, Dan Antion, ANI VP of Information Services, has given a presentation at the annual AIIM (Association for Image and Information Management) Expo and Conference.

The AIIM Expo is a showcase of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) vendors and is coupled with a robust educational program. AIIM  bills itself as the ECM Association and is the leader in research and education in Content Management and related fields of interest. For more information about AIIM, see their web site.

Dan Antion at the 2009 AIIM Expo

Dan’s presentation: “Destination SharePoint – Lessons from Our Journey Toward a SharePoint Centric Environment” shared ANI’s experience with SharePoint for collaboration, file sharing, project management and content management.

Interest in SharePoint at the AIIM show has grown significantly in the past three years. This year’s education program featured more than ten sessions either specifically focused on SharePoint, or offering case study experience with content management and collaboration using SharePoint. The platform is slowly gaining acceptance throughout the Association.

ANI began using SharePoint over four years ago and individuals are using SharePoint to manage projects, organize and facilitate access to documents, develop complex documents and to share information with ANI's insureds as well as many different business partners. ANI has been assisted in implementing SharePoint by the technical staff of ADNET Technologies.

American Nuclear Insurers held its 2009 Annual Meeting at the Marriott Harbor Beach Hotel located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Tuesday, February 3rd.

On Monday, February 2nd, there were meetings of ANI’s Audit Committee and Executive Committee. Prior to the meetings, Andy Pace, Senior Vice President of Conning Asset Management presented an overview of Conning’s management of the ANI portfolio as well as Conning’s economic analysis and forecast for 2009 and beyond.

On Monday evening, Annual Meeting attendees heard a dinner presentation from Marvin S. Fertel  President and Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Mr. Fertel stated that commercial nuclear power plants remain safe, reliable and profitable. Building new plants is particularly desirable in a “carbon-constrained world” and the construction of new nuclear power plants would fit well with President Obama’s goals of new jobs, addressing climate change, and energy security.

On Tuesday, Thomas J. Kusmierczyk, Chairman of ANI’s Board of Directors and Senior Vice President and Chief Property Treaty Officer of Munich Re America presented the Chairman’s Report.  Mr. Kusmierczyk noted that in 2008 ANI attained reasonably successful business results. Underwriting income generally met or exceeded forecasts, but these positive results were tempered by the extraordinary breakdown in investment markets that started in the latter part of 2008.

Marriott Harbor Beach Hotel

Andy Pace

David Ripsom, George Turner, Marvin Fertel

Mr. Kusmierczyk also noted that since 2004, domestic member company participation in American Nuclear Insurers has increased from approximately 28% to 53% and remarked that this trend shows no signs of slowing down. He attributed this development to the fact that  the domestic nuclear insurance market is mostly insulated from the erratic swings that often occur in the conventional U.S. property-casualty insurance market. This stability makes ANI a reliable investment, particularly attractive in the unstable conditions of the current economy.

George D. Turner, ANI’s President & Chief Executive Officer, followed Mr. Kusmierczyk with the President’s Report. He focused on the 2008 financial highlights and details of both our domestic and foreign insurance programs.

David B. Ripsom, President & Chief Executive Officer of Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited (NEIL) presented the keynote address. NEIL is a mutual captive insurer that provides property and accidental outage insurance to the nuclear power industry both in the United States and overseas. NEIL is also American Nuclear Insurers’ principal reinsurance trading partner. Mr. Ripsom discussed NEIL’s organizational and strategic framework, financial results, and their history, particularly as that history relates to NEIL’s business relationship with ANI.

The 2009 ANI Board Companies are Munich Re America, ACE American Insurance Company, Everest Reinsurance Company, Swiss Reinsurance America Corporation, Federal Insurance Company (Chubb), Zurich American Insurance Company, National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh (AIG), Commerce Insurance Company, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and AXIS Reinsurance Company.

ANI’s 2009 Board Officers

Chairman of the Board:
Mr. Thomas J. Kusmierczyk,
Senior Vice President and Chief Property Treaty Officer, Munich Re America

Vice-Chairman of the Board: 
Mr. Paul J. O’Neil, P.E.,
Chief Underwriting Officer
ACE Energy

Secretary:
Mr. Jack Finer, Vice President, International Division Everest Reinsurance Company

Treasurer:                                          
Mr. Gregory Schiffer
Senior Product Line Manager and Member of Senior Management, Swiss Reinsurance Corporation

American Nuclear Insurers held its annual Policyholders Meeting at the historic Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs on September 22 -23. George Turner, ANI’s President and CEO welcomed approximately 75 representatives of ANI’s policyholders, member companies, brokers and reinsurance partners.

ANI’s Chairman, Thomas J. Kusmierczyk of Munich Re America addressed the group and noted that ANI strives to be as open, transparent, and responsive to its policyholders as any utility mutual insurer while remembering that ANI is still a premier guaranteed cost insurance provider to the U.S. nuclear utility market.

Mr. Kusmierczyk also addressed the issue of New Build i.e. the plans to construct a new generation of nuclear power reactors in the United States. He informed the group that ANI would like to enhance and expand our relationship with our Customers by providing property as well as liability insurance for the New Build efforts. He foresees a role for ANI as a New Build property reinsurer of the utility mutual insurer Nuclear Energy Insurance Limited (NEIL) since NEIL provides nuclear property insurance for all of the sites where new reactors are planned.

Sue Botticello, ANI’s Chief Financial Officer presented the group with a comprehensive report on ANI’s business results. Gary Uricchio, ANI’s Underwriting Vice President followed Ms. Botticello and informed the meeting participants of ANI’s future business plans in terms of limits and premium. Then Marjorie Berger, ANI’s Vice President of Liability Claims reported on ANI’s claims developments.

Ralph Anderson, the Nuclear Energy Institute’s Director of Radiation Protection and Low Level Waste provided the audience with a very informative presentation regarding new issues emerging in radiation science and the need to reshape radiological protection at nuclear power plants to achieve significant improvements in safety performance and cost-effectiveness. Mr. Anderson was followed by Bob Oliveira, ANI’s Director of Health Physics. Bob works closely with Ralph Anderson and the Nuclear Energy Institute. He discussed ANI’s engineering activities relating to radiation protection and the close working relationship with technical representatives of our Customers.

Finally, Dan Antion, ANI’s Vice President of Information Services updated our Customers on the development of a new web-based Policyholder Portal which will give policyholders access to a wide range of pertinent insurance information.

ANI was pleased to host a Uranium Users Group (UUG) meeting on March 17th and 18th in Charlotte, North Carolina. The UUG is an informal group of Radiation Protection Professionals from major fuel cycle facilities including uranium conversion facilities, uranium enrichment facilities and fuel fabricabrication facilities insured by ANI were represented at this meeting.

Robert Oliveira, Director Health Physics and Mark Poirier, Manager Nuclear Materials Facilities described recent claims experience and

discussed ANI’s insurance perspective on radiation dosimetry and radioactive material contamination control practices. 

The discussion initiated collaboration among the UUG members and ANI to evaluate current dosimetry practices and to identify best practices for contamination control. The results of this work will be used as a basis for the further development of dosimetry and contamination control practices at fuel cycle facilities.

Bob and Mark will participate in a UUG meeting being scheduled later this year to review the work of the UUG members related to these topics. Also, interest has been expressed by several fuel cycle insureds for additional presentations on similar topics.

ANI Vice President of Information Services
Presents at AIIM Expo 2008

Daniel Antion, ANI's Vice President, Information Services, gave a presentation at AIIM Conference & Expo 2008 describing ANI’s experience with Microsoft SharePoint. The presentation “SharePoint 2007- Fulfilling the Promise at ANI” highlighted the benefits of using SharePoint as a collaboration and document management platform. Dan’s presentation focused on the ways ANI is using and plans to use SahrePoint to manage unstructured data and to support collaboration.

AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management, also known as The Enterprise Content Management Association, is a professional organization with about 70,000 members. The association's goal is to help its members understand the challenges and improve their skills in the areas of document management, records retention and business processes and work flows. In recent years, AIIM has expanded its educational program to specifically address compliance and collaboration as part of its comprehensive approach to ECM education. SharePoint is a natural fit with those goals, especially in the 2007 version where Microsoft added many new document management and records retention features to the strong suite of collaboration tools that characterized the earlier version of SharePoint. ANI uses SharePoint for both collaboration and document management.

ANI Participates in the 2007 Nuclear Energy Institute’s
Health Physics Forum

Bob Oliveira, ANI Director – Health Physics, attended the 2007 NEI Health Physics Forum. Key speakers at this year’s Forum included: The Honorable Gregory Jaczko, Commissioner – U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Michael Blevins, Sr. Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Luminant Power; Tony Pietrangelo, Vice President Regulatory affairs – Nuclear Energy Institute; and Dr. Donald Cool, Sr. Advisor Radiation Safety and International Liaison U.S. NRC.

Additional presentations were provided by: Roger Pedersen and Steve Garry, U.S. NRC; Jeff Place, INPO; Sean Bushart, EPRI; and Ralph Andersen, NEI. There were approximately 100 attendees including Radiation Protection Managers, students, and representatives from the U.S. NRC, INPO, EPRI, NEI, and ANI.

This year’s breakout sessions focused on High Radiation Area controls, tritium releases to the environment, contamination control, policy and regulations, staffing and infrastructure, and source term reduction

George Turner, President and CEO, John Quattrocchi, Senior Vice President – Underwriting and Gary Uricchio, Vice President – Underwriting participated in the Nuclear Pools’ Forum held from June 4th – 7th 2007 in Ghent, Belgium. The purpose of the forum is for representatives of the nuclear insurance Pools around the world to discuss nuclear industry developments in their own countries. Since many of the Pools reinsure each other’s business, the forum provides an opportunity for all parties to be informed on developments of mutual interest.

Two of the major topics discussed were the expanded liabilities created by the revisions to the Paris Convention and cross-border claims handling practices between the Pools.The next Nuclear Pool Forum will be held in Kiev, Ukraine in June of 2008.

ANI Participates in the Nuclear Energy Institute’s
Dry Fuel Storage Forum

Paul Fox ANI Principal Engineer participated in the NEI Dry Fuel Storage Forum held in Clearwater Beach, Florida May 15-17th. The purpose of the Forum was to share nuclear industry experiences associated with Dry Fuel Storage, ISFSI (Independent spent fuel storage installation) Construction, ISFSI Security, Licensing, Cask construction, Spent Fuel Transportation, Yucca Mountain Waste Repository and Private Fuel Storage Facility Programs. The Forum was attended by more than 200 representatives from utilities, NRC, EPA, equipment vendors, Community Advocacy groups, and ANI. This diversity of participants facilitated broad discussions that focused on fuel storage issues in both formal sessions and informal discussion groups.

During the Decommissioning Plant/Stand Alone ISFSI breakout session, Paul took the opportunity to distribute for comment the ANI “Decommissioning Fire Protection Guidelines”. A general discussion followed relating to the unique risks that occur during this phase of operations in a nuclear power plant life cycle. ANI’s participation in this Forum was well received. Anyone wishing a copy of the ANI Guidelines should email Paul at pfox@amnucins.com.

ANI Adds Japanese Language Version of the International Fire Protection Guidelines to its Web Site

The Japan Atomic Energy Insurance Pool (JAEIP) has translated the newly revised fourth edition of the International Guidelines for the Fire Protection of Nuclear Power Plants into the Japanese language. This edition replaces the third edition published in 1995.  Now Japanese nuclear plant operators and nuclear insurance professionals have access to insurance company recommended fire protection practices, important lessons learned from insurers' loss experience and from knowledge obtained by pool engineers during plant inspections. The fourth edition incorporates new technology and the inspection experience of Pool engineers since 1997. Many of the prescriptive recommendations of the third edition were removed to allow for the use of contemporary performance-based technology. The Japanese Language Version is located on our Technical Papers page.

(Excerpted and adapted from an unsigned text in the Up Front department: “Industry Progress Toward Building New Nuclear Plants” at the Nuclear Energy Institute.)

As the need for cleaner sources of energy increases, a number of nuclear power companies and consortia are planning for building new nuclear plants in the United States.

In late 2000, energy companies began to talk publicly about exploring the possibility of building new nuclear plants in the United States. In September 2000, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) formed an industry New Nuclear Power Plant Task Force to identify the market conditions and business structures that would lead to the construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States. Business entities making the decisions to build new nuclear plants needed reasonably good estimates of costs and schedules.

Vision 2020

In 2001, the nuclear energy industry announced its goal to preserve the same percentage of America’s emission-free electricity while at the same time adding new electricity generation. The Vision 2020 report specifies having enough new nuclear power plants either under order, in construction, or built to provide 50,000 MW of additional electricity generating capacity to the U.S. power grid by 2020. Also, the report calls for the addition of another 10,000 MW capacity of nuclear power by:

1. Uprating existing plants by modifying these plants with more efficient equipment and more accurate instrumentation so that they can produce more electricity.
2. Operating current plants more efficiently so that there is less time when the reactor is not producing full power.

According to Vision 2020, these two changes can be expected to result in increasing the share of nuclear energy in the nation's electric supply from 20 percent to 23 percent. Together with other renewable production, these increases are expected to maintain the non-emitting percentage of electricity produced in the United States at 30 percent, continuing to help keep our air clean.

Also in 2001, the New Nuclear Power Plant Task Force completed a plan to facilitate new plant business decisions. The Integrated Plan for New Nuclear Plants encompasses four broad areas of activity:

1. New plant economics and project structure concentrates on enhancing the economics of new nuclear plants through energy policy initiatives, innovative project and ownership structures, improved capital cost and schedule estimates, and modernizing NRC financial-related requirements.
2. Predictable licensing and stable regulation targets reducing time-to-market for new nuclear plants by ensuring well-understood processes are in place for predictable and efficient licensing, construction, start-up and operation of new plants.
3. Policymaker and public support considers communicating the energy-security, environmental, and economic benefits of nuclear energy to policy makers and opinion leaders as well as the general public.
4. Nuclear industry infrastructure aims to ensure a qualified work force to design, construct, operate, and maintain new plants as well as sufficient manufacturing capability, engineering services, and equipment suppliers for new nuclear plants. NEI is coordinating industry task forces to analyze and take action on the many issues in each of these areas.

In 2003, Exelon, Entergy and Dominion filed for early site permits for new reactors— Dominion at its North Anna power station in Virginia; Exelon at Clinton Station in Illinois; and, Entergy at Grand Gulf Station in Mississippi. Under the early site permit program, an energy company may "bank" an approved site for future use, returning to the NRC at a later date to request a construction and operating license for a pre-approved plant design.

2004: Consortia Are Formed

Three consortia responded in 2004 to the U.S. Department of Energy’s solicitation under the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative and were awarded matching funds. Two will test the Construction and Operating License (COL) process and one will explore construction feasibility.

The Dominion-led consortium includes GE Energy, Hitachi America, and Bechtel Corp., and has selected General Electric's Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR). AECL Technology was the reactor vendor and Atomic Energy of Canada’s ACR 700 reactor the technology of choice. In 2005, the consortium selected Dominion's North Anna nuclear plant site for the COL application, scheduled to be submitted in 2007.

The NuStart Energy LLC consortium consists of Constellation Generation Group, Duke Energy, EDF International North America, Entergy Nuclear, Exelon Generation, Florida Power & Light Co., Progress Energy, Southern Co., GE Energy, TVA, and Westinghouse Electric Co.. They have chosen the General Electric Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) and the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000 reactor. In 2005, the consortium chose TVA's Bellefonte nuclear plant site and Entergy's Grand Gulf site for COL applications, expected to be submitted in 2007.

The third consortium, led by TVA, includes General Electric, Toshiba, USEC Inc., Global Fuel-Americas, and Bechtel Power Corp., formed to develop a feasibility study for a TVA site based on the General Electric Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR). The study was completed in 2005.

Individual energy companies also began work on additional COLs, all in 2005:

1. Entergy plans to submit a COL for its River Bend nuclear plant site for an ESBWR in 2008.
2. Southern Company plans to submit a COL for its Vogtle plant site in 2008.
3. Progress Energy plans to submit two COL applications in 2008, one for its Harris Nuclear Plant site in North Carolina and one for a site to be selected in Florida.
4. Duke will prepare a COL application for two AP1000 reactors at sites still to be determined.
5. Constellation Energy formed a nuclear plant and construction joint venture with AREVA—called UniStar—and plans to submit an Early Site Permit (ESP) in 2007 for the Calvert Cliffs or Nine Mile Point sites; and a COL application for the EPR reactor in 2008. The ESP submittals and the design certification processes for the EPR are expected to proceed simultaneously toward a 2007 target.
6. Carolina Electric & Gas is conducting preliminary work and evaluation on a possible COL.