No Comments! Be The First!
Whither nuclear power?
Posted By katie allison granju
In case you haven’t seen it yet, this week’s Metro Pulse cover story by Rikki Hall is a must-read. It offers a thorough look at how TVA is betting on a resurgence of support for nuclear power in an age of coal-fired global warming.
The nuclear arms race may be behind us, but a new nuclear power race has just begun, and the Tennessee Valley Authority hopes to win it.
On Oct. 30, the federal utility applied for a license to build two nuclear reactors in Alabama. A Texas consortium got their license application in a month prior. Who builds first depends on how smoothly the licensing process goes, and since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) anticipates receiving 19 additional license applications in the coming year courtesy of some serious federal incentives, there will be more competitors aiming to build the first new reactor in the United States since TVA completed the Watts Bar reactor in 1996.
Whether you want TVA—or anyone—to win this race likely depends on how much you trust nuclear engineers and climate scientists. Existing U.S. reactors have operated for more than two decades now without major incidents, and this new generation of reactors includes passive safety features and simplified designs that make them more reliable. Still, spent fuel rods remain highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years, and we still don’t have long-term plans for storing them.
Have your views on the use of nuclear power evolved in recent years? If so, how?
Dec 21st, 2007
