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Senior
Manager
Nuclear Business Development
Entergy Nuclear
Jackson, MS
Kenneth Hughey was among the first staffers to join the nuclear development
staff in August 1999. So he is in an ideal position to describe how Entergy
Nuclear managed to double its nuclear units and become the fastest growing
national nuclear operator in the U.S. in just three years - as well as what is
next for Entergy Nuclear.
He is a 20+ year veteran of Entergy's nuclear organization, having joined
Entergy in 1983 as a licensing engineer. For the past four years, he has been a
lead engineer in evaluating potential assets and planning their acquisition as
well as managing the license renewal effort for Entergy Nuclear's 10 operating
units, the early site permit application for a new reactor at Grand Gulf and
Entergy's investigation of new, super-safe advanced reactors. Prior to 1999, he
was one of Entergy Nuclear's top licensing executives who could quote you the
specific section of the Code of Federal Regulations on an amazing number of
requirements governing nuclear power plants. He spent 16 years responding to
requests and requirements of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on behalf of
Entergy.
Kenneth was Director of Nuclear Safety and Regulatory Affairs at Grand Gulf from
November 1996 to July 1999. Prior to that he was Director of Corporate Licensing
at Entergy Nuclear's Headquarters in Jackson, Mississippi. Kenneth was certified
as a Senior Reactor Operator's License while at Grand Gulf in 1994-95.
Kenneth is a Mississippi product. He is a chemical engineering graduate of
Mississippi State University (1978) and earned an MBA at Mississippi College,
Clinton, Miss., (1986). He started his career after college with five years as a
design engineer in the chemical industry at Tennessee Eastman and Mississippi
Chemical. He is a licensed professional engineer by the state of Mississippi,
and is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In addition,
Kenneth is a member of the American Nuclear Society and serves as an executive
director for the Operations and Power Division. He also is an inspiring soccer
coach in Clinton and past president of the Clinton soccer club.
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The Role of Nuclear Energy in the
Generation Mix of the Future
W. Kenneth Hughey, PE
The U.S. economy must find new and expanded supplies of energy to meet demands
while facing stronger environmental regulations. The solution is creating a
diverse source of environmentally friendly and readily available supplies of
low-cost energy. Building new nuclear power plants with the ability to generate
not only electricity, but also hydrogen may be one of the best solutions. New
nuclear power plants can also reduce America's dependence on imported natural
gas and oil, increase America's fuel diversity and create more clean energy. New
nuclear energy plants and a hydrogen economy, in fact, may be the best way we
can meet all those goals.
Entergy Nuclear is taking a two-track approach to keep the nuclear option
available. First is the selection and deployment of an advanced light water
reactor (ALWR), which already has reactor designs certified as safe and ready to
build, and appropriately builds on the current technology base. The second track
is the selection and deployment of a High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR), a new
generation of power reactors which can be terrorist hardened, built underground
and virtually meltdown proof. These reactors would operate at higher
temperatures (800-950 degrees Celsius) compared to today's reactors (325 degrees
Celsius). Operations at these temperatures is high enough to thermo-chemically
split water into hydrogen and oxygen -- and therefore becoming not only a
electric generator but also a low-cost, large-volume source of hydrogen to fuel
a hydrogen economy, free of geopolitics.
The promise of new nuclear to provide reliable, domestic, low-cost energy in
large volumes - in the form of both electricity and hydrogen - is too great to
ignore. The sooner we all recognize that, the better our national economy and
quality of life can be.
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