I might even have to crack open that case of Sam Adams I’ve been seeing in the garage fridge all week for this one.
The Nuclear Renaissance Begins
If you’re tracking the nuclear power revival in America, last Tuesday, September 25, was a milestone. For the first time since 1973, a new application for building a reactor was placed before the federal government.
The proposal submitted Tuesday is to build two new reactors with a total capacity of 2,700 megawatts at the South Texas Project site in Matagorda County, where two nuclear units have already operated for 25 years. The size of the reactors is unprecedented — the biggest American plants generally produce about 1,200 MW.
“This is a historical event,” said Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, long the Senate’s strongest supporter of nuclear. “Consumers around the world are benefiting from clean nuclear power. Finally our nation is on the verge of taking greater advantage of this technology. I hope it is the first of many.”
I hope so too. I’ll take a pair up here for every hydro-electric dam the eco-socialists manage to get shut down.
See how they like those apples.
Well, hell, if the average nuclear reactor is not even powerful enough to run a flux capacitor, no wonder they want to make larger ones!
Except we need to start the process for building those nuke plants BEFORE the tree-huggers get any major dams shut down.
Or, in the alternative, we need to change out the judiciary which would give the tree-huggers that victory.
What the hey, let’s just change the government while we’re at it. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Great news!! Please build four in my backyard!!
North Anna Nuke Plant (VA) already has 2, has approval for 2 more, but Dominion Power ain’t got the balls to go get approval to start construction.
Perhaps some good news from TX will get the ball rolling in VA and elsewhere.
They’re taking out the dams on the Elwah river. Port Angeles is going to have NO source of electricity before too long. I’m glad I left in 1994, too bad my folks still live there.
Taking the dams out is going to kill that part of the country.
One problem. There is a U shortage looming.
http://www.zealllc.com/2007/ustocks.htm for just one article on the topic.
Short version – not enough mining, declining stockpiles, a lot of nuke-plant construction going on already (internationally). It’s going to be a problem, considering that few, if any, of the newer plants are designed as breeder reactors (as far as I know).
There are some other positive developments on the energy front, but there are some fundamental materials issues, too. For example, natural gas is clean, and it would be great if we could build a pipeline for it from AK to the lower 48, except the proposals all call for more pipe than current mine production of molybdenum can supply (it is used in the special high-strength and corrosion-resistant pipes they are planning on using). Details, details.
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