Posted on 03/12/2005 10:45:18 PM PST by FairOpinion
After years of dormancy, the U.S. nuclear industry is stirring again, hoping that a friendly White House and Congress will provide the tax dollars it needs for its first expansion in years to build more plants in places like Clinton, Ill.
New construction likely is years away, but as part of its speeded-up permit process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reached an initial conclusion last week that no environmental problems stand in the way of Exelon Corp. adding new reactors at its plant in Clinton, in central Illinois.
A day later, President George W. Bush delivered a strong pitch for the nation to resume building nuclear plants, pronouncing nuclear power "reliable and secure."
Now, the industry is pushing Congress for what it really needs: Huge subsidies to minimize the risk in building new plants.
"What we're saying to members of Congress is that we need to have an array of stimuli that folks might be able to tap into," said Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington.
Sixteen months ago, an energy bill that fell two votes short of final passage had just that sort of stimulus: $6 billion in tax credits; $1 billion more to build a nuclear reactor in Idaho that would attempt to generate hydrogen fuel; and an extension of the taxpayer-funded accident insurance in the half-century old Price Anderson Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
France, as a small, high density country is getting 80% of its energy supplied by nuclear energy. Why can't we do that?
It's time to stop the hysteria and build nuclear reactors in the US. Between that and opening up ANWR, we could a long ways towards energy self sufficiency, intead of making the ME countries rich, who are trying to hold us up.
See related article:
OPEC expected to maintain production quota after meeting in Iran
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will probably leave its production quota unchanged at this week's meeting in Iran, while also seeking to keep the price of a barrel of oil at near record levels, analysts say.
Now if only we can revive the nuclear family.
With the promise of a final burial place for all high and low-level irradiated products (including the plants themselves), I do not have a problem with expanding nuclear power use.
However, I would like to encourage the use of some newer technologies that - ironically - places like China have endorsed.
Such inherently safe designs should cut down on consequential accidents and the need for overengineering to CYA for environmentalists.
"Pebble bed reactors:"
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/134171/1/.html
The current popular distaste for anything nuclear can be traced back to the early seventies when the loony left assured us that the Amana Radar-Range turned food into fallout.
Thanks for posting the link.
Interesting. China is building 4 more nuclear plants and they already have nine in operation. They recognize the need for it, and our envirowackos succeeded in setting us back in our path towards energy independence, or reduced dependence on others.
More from your excellent link:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/134171/1/.html
"Earlier reports said that one of the two Weihai plants would be a 195-megawatt gas-cooled experimental reactor using China's revolutionary homegrown "pebble-bed" reactor technology, which could make plants both meltdown- and proliferation-proof.
It would be the first radically new reactor design for decades, putting China at the forefront in nuclear energy research that offers an alternative to conventional nuclear power stations, experts said.
"Pebble bed" reactors are fueled by thousands of small graphite balls with minute uranium cores which provide the fuel for the nuclear reaction. "
More nukes!
Last I checked, Westinghouse was going to build them for China.
In the Archives somewhere are a lot of good articles on the Pebble Bed technology....and the Idaho facility was studying some new kind of fuel that had promise also.
I hope so....even are "whacky leftist French allies" rely on nuclear....just don't put all of them on the San Andreas fault.....
Actually, what the nuclear industry needs is TORT REFORM to elmininate the hundreds of frivolous lawsuits the anti-nuke zealots launch in the court system. The expense of defending the suits, but more importantly, the resulting delays in construction with the concomitant added interest on financing is what actually caused the massive increase in nuke plant cost.
After the Bob Brinker show ralied against the high import of oil (12 million barrels a day) a caller asked why we are still worried about nuclear energy. He did not say microwave ovens was the problem, but that too many people remember Three Mile Island and Chernobal. He is more likely correct about this, but advances in safety have been made, and as the article points out, even the French are on board.
We should get behind nuclear energy, it is the surest defense against the OPEC attacks on our way of life.
We should consider nuclear plants to be akin to conservation (which is also always a good idea). Nuclear electricity conserves fossil fuel powered power plants.
Additionally, it is important to learn from WPPSS and Diablo Canyon.
DO NOT LET THE UNIONS RUN THE CONSTRUCTION!
They had contests among the "workers" to see who could go the longest without doing any work.
....it was measured in WEEKS!
AND...
DO NOT LET THE ENVIROs ADD 7 to 10 YEARS to the CONSTRUCTION PROCESS!
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