President Obama to step up support for US nuclear industry

Telegraph ^ | 14 Feb 2010 | Louise Armitstead

[Felis_irritable]

Political and union appointees will run the place and anybody with actual knowledge will be afraid to speak out about problems.

I worked on part of Plant Vogtle in the '80s. I'm sure it's not the same people, but I was impressed with Georgia Power's people then and one would hope they've kept the lineage, so to speak.

If anyone can do it right I would think they are in the running, even with dummyrat meddling

[kidd]

Chernobyl was a graphite-moderated reactor. It is an inherently unsafe design. With the loss of the graphite moderator, the reaction goes out of control.

No US plants use this design. US plants are slow-neutron reactors. Water is used to slow the neutrons down for capture and fission. If the water is missing, the neutrons are too fast and the reaction stops. This why Three Mile Island was more of a financial disaster than an environmental disaster...the reaction stopped when the water went away.

The relationship between the government, the utilities and the NRC is rather complicated. I believe that most of the NRC is paid for by the utilities, so there are some checks to an overreaching Obama administartion.

[kidd]

Environmental groups sue and it gets tied up for years.

Probably not true anymore. Under the old system of license approvals, there were multiple opportunities for environmental groups to stick their noses into the process and screw things up.

However, the nuclear industry, and a somewhat sympathetic NRC, have revised the process. Now there is only ONE opportunity for environmentalists to have a say, and the resolution process has limited what they can do.

The success of the licensing process for the new Vogtle plants is an example of how environmentalist powers have been curtailed. Phoney claims and obstructionism for the sake of obstructionism will not hold much water anymore.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

100 nuclear plants were licensed and built in the 20 year heyday — average of 5 per year from 1960 to 1980. I haven’t kept up with global nuclear expansion — have that many been built globally the last 30 years? Is the experience in the U.S.? Or Japan?

[sefarkas]

"There have been no new licenses issued to nuclear plants in the America since 1979 when a major accident at...."
Which makes me even more suspicious of Obama's intentions.
The first statement is simply a lie spoken by someone clueless about the American nuclear power industry. The list of operating licenses issued since 1979 is quite long (read this). At least one plant (River Bend near Baton Rouge) was barely a hole in the ground when TMI happened. The Americans continued to build nuclear power plants into the 1990s -- Watts Bar #1 in TN was the last to go on-line in 1996. The industry has plenty of experience in design, construction, and operation. If Pres. Obama wants to help commercial nuclear power in this country, then more power to him -- kinda like Pres. Nixon going to China. It would take a RAT administration to break the back of the enviro-wacko anti-nuclear paranoids.

[ArchAngel1983]

Thank you for the ino. This is really good news!

[Wonder Warthog]

"100 nuclear plants were licensed and built in the 20 year heyday — average of 5 per year from 1960 to 1980. I haven’t kept up with global nuclear expansion — have that many been built globally the last 30 years? Is the experience in the U.S.? Or Japan?"

"In 2007, the IAEA reported there were 439 nuclear power reactors in operation in the world,[3] operating in 31 countries.[4]" Wikipedia

There are 37 reactors currently under construction, and 40 more on order.

US companies built most of these. The companies may now be Japanese subsidiaries (I haven't kept track of changes of ownership, but a little digging will probably winkle it out), but the technology and engineers are largely American.

[Wuli]

Nuclear power is needed, but giant nuclear power plants are not and nuclear power does not need government loans.

The only purpose in those loans will be the campaign contributions he expects to flow back to him and his.

[calex59]

If he was really serious he would be taking steps to ban the EPA and reverse all the ignorant “green” laws on the books that make it impossible for nukes to be built. It isn’t the money that is stopping people, it’s the regulations.