Congress Agenda Day One – Tuesday, December 9, 2008
9:00
Chairman’s Opening Remarks
9:15-10:00
Re-Evaluating Nuclear Power’s Role in Meeting the Nation’s Current and Future Demand for Electricity
- U.S. energy outlook - projecting future energy demands and associated capacity improvements
- Examining the current status of market-based approaches to limit greenhouse gas emissions
- Reassessing the role of nuclear power as a means to expand electricity capacity and reduce carbon dioxide emissions
- Examining the change in attitudes towards nuclear power – from what sectors is renewed or new support coming from?
- Highlighting the major opportunities and challenges surrounding the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’
- Current status of new nuclear plant license applications – progress and expectations
- New approaches for improving the commercial viability of and advancing new nuclear plant build
Paul D. Hinnenkamp
Vice President, Business Development
Entergy Nuclear
10:00-10:45
Leveraging Current Regulatory Incentives to Mitigate the Risk of and Increase the Commercial Viability of a Nuclear Revival
- Demonstrating federal support for building additional capacity and an advanced generation of nuclear reactors
- Capitalizing on the financial incentives established under the Energy Policy Act
- Extension of Price-Anderson Act
- Loan guarantees for innovative technologies
- Availability of R&D funding
- Insurance against regulatory delays
- Production tax credits
- Ensuring your project is eligible for federal support – what measures do you need to take to qualify for financial incentives?
- Incorporating measures into your business plan to secure project financing
- Examining examples of project proposals who have qualified to date
- Prospective policy initiatives – predicting future legislative action and market outcomes
John E. Matthews
Partner
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
William A. Horrin
Partner
Winston and Strawn LLP
10:45-11:15
Networking and Refreshment Break
11:15-12:00
International Perspectives on the Opportunities and Challenges around the Increased Emphasis toward Nuclear Power
- An overview of the world energy outlook and its strategic challenges
- Operator perspectives on global nuclear fuel markets – the view from France, Russia, Japan and China
- What new nuclear build is planned?
- What work is being done to close the fuel cycle?
- How do international efforts translate to the U.S. market?
- International perspectives on the long-term management of nuclear waste
Christopher J. Hansen
Associate Director, Global Power
Cambridge Energy Research Association (CERA)
Ian Hore-Lacy
Director of Public Communications
World Nuclear Association
12:00-12:45
Controlling Cost and Schedule in New Nuclear Construction
- Historical construction cost and schedule performance for nuclear plants
- Current challenges in the construction of nuclear plants
- Limited nuclear vendors and contractors
- Labor availability and escalation
- Material escalation
- Supply chain bottlenecks
- Current pricing for the construction of nuclear plants and estimated construction schedules
- Implementing contracting structures to best address engineering and construction challenges
- Incorporating contractual safeguards to protect against project delays and unforeseen costs
Scott Greer
Partner
King & Spalding LLC
12:45-2:00
Networking Luncheon
2:00-2:45
Exploring Financing Mechanisms for the Construction of New Nuclear Power Plants
- Examining financial models for new nuclear plant build
- Non-recourse financing (Limited-Recourse Financing) with government support
- Regulated utility model
- Build-Own-Operate (BOO) model
- Evaluating the defining characteristics, associated benefits, and risks of each model to determine which would work best for your project
- Leveraging the influx of private equity and venture capital
- Examining the establishment of new industry consortia, designed to advance new nuclear build, and their progress to date
- Understanding the importance of Construction Delay Indemnity (CDI) and Outage Liquidity Facility (OLF) to minimize project financing risk
Dan Rogers
Partner
King & Spalding LLC
2:45-3:30
New Capital Finance and Investment Opportunities: Investor and Rating Agency Perspectives
- Assessing the current investment climate and market confidence around the financing of nuclear construction projects
- What guides investment decisions - what level of assurance and information is required from potential investors?
- Key considerations for potential investors
- Decommissioning and waste management costs
- Opportunities and hurdles around foreign capital resources or ownership
- Identifying existing constraints
- Examining potential checks and balances to offset concerns
- Analyzing how the asset class will develop over the next 12-18 months
Paul Dabbar
Managing Director, Global Mergers & Acquisitions
JPMorgan
Dan Aschenbach
Senior Vice President, Public Finance
Moody’s Investor Service
3:30-4:00
Networking and Refreshment Break
4:00-4:45
Effective Planning and Execution Strategies for New Nuclear Build: Lessons Learned from the last Nuclear Construction Cycle
- Best practices for pre-project planning
- Estimating tools and challenges
- Scheduling tools and challenges
- Risk identification practices
- Contracting mechanisms
- Staffing for design and construction of a new technology
- Sourcing, Training, Retaining, Motivating
- Project execution – evaluating what went wrong and what went right?
- Scope change control
- Document control
- Configuration control
- Contractor performance
- Risk management
- Work force management
- Owner involvement
- Transition to operations
James E. Carter
Director
Navigant Consulting
Geno Armstrong
Principal
KPMG
4:45-5:30
Identifying New Nuclear Plant Deployment Challenges and Mitigation Strategies
- Preparing for challenges within the NRC Combined License process
- Challenges with the regulatory process
- Legal challenges to the license application
- Preparing for challenges within State and Federal permitting processes
- Aligning objectives with reviewing agencies
- Creating win-win opportunities
- Managing multiple public venues for application review
- Preparing for a Public Relations campaign supporting new nuclear projects
- Identifying resources
- Engaging stakeholders
- Engendering political and regulatory support
- Monitoring the economics of nuclear generation
- Moving forward in the face of uncertainty
- Cost comparisons and evolving information
- The cost of alternatives; Fuel and emission markets
- Developing a robust execution strategy
- Establishing the execution team
- Adapting old mindsets to new regulatory realities
- Project controls and active management
Steven D. Scroggs
Senior Director for Project Development
Florida Power and Light Company
5:30
Chairman’s Closing Remarks and End of Day One
6:00
King & Spalding Cocktail Reception
