FROM THE EDITORS | From the editors


Editors over the last 50 years share the highs and lows of their time leading NEi and reveal their thoughts on nuclear then and now.


James Varley: From Powerpoint to power plant With impeccable timing, I left the post of NEi editor just as there were modest signs of a potential nuclear revival. When I became editor, in 1984, nuclear power was not something discussed in polite company. It was considered expensive and unreliable. No one worried too much about CO2


in those days. And recollections of Three Mile Island


remained vivid. Things got much worse in April 1986 with the Chornobyl catastrophe. My early years on the title were indeed dominated by the accident and its aftermath. We became somewhat obsessed with Russian nuclear technology and its safety, with many visits to nuclear power plants in eastern Europe and Russia, including to Chornobyl (in December 1987). During a visit to Kyiv, I was able meet one of the people operating the plant at the time of the accident (Anatoly Dyatlov) to get his side of the story and an authoritative account of serious RBMK design defects not mentioned in ‘official’ Russian accounts of the accident. For most of my 12-year stint as NEi editor, the nuclear new build market was decidedly sluggish. But, although the demand for new plants was limited, the industry still had plenty to keep it busy, such as unreliable steam generators that needed replacing, embrittled pressure vessels, stress corrosion cracking in pipe work, to say nothing of fuel supply, and the management of spent fuel and waste, with its attendant controversies. The October 1990 issue, at 180 pages – a special edition


James Varley


for the ENC trade show in Lyon – remains the largest to date, thanks to support from companies involved in the O&M side of the business. That issue reported the granting of planning permission for the Hinkley Point C PWR in the UK, now expected to go into operation in 2030 or thereabouts. It also includes discussion of the prospects for small modular inherently safe reactors, a recurring theme over the years of my editorship. Remarkably, a mere 40 years on, some SMRs may be, like Hinkley Point C, close to entering the operational phase and let’s hope that NEi will still be around to report their transition from PowerPoint to power plant.


David Flin


David Flin: Leaving Las Vegas Where does the time go? It feels like only a few years ago that I was Editor of NEi, It appears that it was a quarter of a century ago, and the nuclear industry has changed dramatically since then. Back then, at the start of the Millennium, the industry appeared to be on a long, slow decline. Outside of China, no-one was building new plants. Germany had announced it would build no new plants and would phase out all its existing plants. South Korea hadn’t built a reactor since 1980. America and Britain hadn’t built anything new for ages. The main topics that were being discussed were


Janet Wood


life extension, decommissioning, and waste disposal. Occasionally, there would be talk of a new reactor in a new country, but these talks never came to anything. This was reflected in the conferences and exhibitions, which largely focused on these subjects. The average age of people


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attending these conferences and exhibitions was rising steadily as people got older and no new young people were entering the industry. The situation now is very different. New construction is happening around the world. SMRs have expanded the options available. There is an increased confidence about the industry. Concerns over climate change and the acceptance that the world has to reduce its output of CO2


has raised the profile


of nuclear as being the leading option for central baseload supply generating carbon-free power. New construction and new designs have taken off, in Canada, Britain, India, Türkiye, Taiwan and elsewhere. SMRs are being built and there is an optimism that wasn’t present two decades ago. I had some interesting times as Editor of NEI. I think I


found the exhibitions and conferences the most illuminating and, in some cases, amusing. Long-term waste disposal is an issue that requires nothing to be left to chance over a very long period of time. It requires every last detail to be considered and planned. And where were these waste disposal conferences held? Las Vegas, that city dedicated to the ephemeral vagaries of chance. The contrast between the subject of the conferences and the location was something that always struck me as highly amusing. NEi has come a long way over the last 70 years. Here’s a toast to the next 70 years.


Janet Wood: Becoming a business I enjoyed writing for and about an industry that is technically, financially and politically complex, so I continue to write for the magazine today. The biggest challenge is being accurate and informative and providing honest information for readers in the industry. I visited 22 nuclear sites when I was working directly at NEi.


I recall the eerie experience of Browns Ferry when one unit was still in post-fire shutdown with equipment coated in fire- retardant material. One of the highlights was building contacts that enabled the magazine to cover the nuclear industry in Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR as they joined their western neighbours. We were able to visit nuclear sites, untangle complex co-operative agreements and discuss the technical and economic choices made. I visited the control room at Chornobyl between the catastrophic accident at unit 4 and the fire in unit 2. In the past, the nuclear industry seemed little influenced by their electricity industry colleagues or even the end users. Nuclear felt like an exclusive club. Today the nuclear industry is finally getting to grips with the idea that it is a business. It is one source of electricity (and heat) among many that users can choose from and it has to compete to be able to provide its product. It has some characteristics that are attractive for the future – low carbon, grid supporting and high volume – and there is thinking about how to provide other services, such as flexibility, in a way that did not happen before. Now the industry as a whole is finding new ways to address its own and global challenges and acting in response to


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