Longtime readers know that I work in this sector, so the announcement today that Washington will be assisting in financing the construction of two new commercial nuclear power plants is just about the only good news I personally have ever heard coming out of the current administration.
It is good news for America, although not for the reasons Obama and his energy secretary espoused.
Mr. Obama said, “Make no mistake: whether it is nuclear energy, or solar or wind energy, if we fail to invest in these technologies today, we’ll be importing them tomorrow.”
But these reactors were designed by Westinghouse, a subsidiary of Toshiba, and many major components will be fabricated abroad. And nuclear power is of limited use in offsetting oil imports.
In a conference call with reporters, the energy secretary, Steven Chu, compared the reactors to coal plants, not oil, saying how much they would reduce carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide output.
We cannot import enough electricity to fill the gap that losing the existing reactor fleet – only a scant 104 commercial nuclear plants are operating. The problem is that the fleet is aging. Many are nearing the end of their original 40 (thanks, Bob, for pointing out the error) year design life. Only 20 year life extensions will keep them online for the next two decades.
When those extensions run out, the US will lose some 806.2 billion KW-hours of generation. Just like that there will be an enormous hole in the baseload generation of this country. If we do not start building these plants now, we will be in real trouble very, very quickly.
Frankly, Chu’s argument is one the nuclear industry has pointed out for decades. But we will have to build a lot of new reactors to replace the amount of coal generation. Wind and solar are a joke, trust me. They are not at all reliable and would not even be where they are today without massive tax subsidies. Without the baseload and load-following spinning reserve provided by nuclear and coal energy, there would be angry mobs chasing politicians who keep subsidizing wind and solar instead of promoting reliable energy sources.
Now if Washington will just get off its dead butt and restarts nuclear fuel reprocessing, we’ll be gearing up for a realistic energy future.
Read an article just this morning about new methods of nuclear fuel recycling. Sure beats burying it under a mountain.
The Luddites keep trying to say there is no such thing. There is, of course.
I Won says one thing while doing another. Two nuclear power plants would be a small step in the right direction, but I don’t think the chief Obamatard intends to have either one built. He just wanted a press conference and to win favor with his unions. Left up to Obama, these plants will never go on line.
I concur with DavidL. This is either some sort of bait and switch or a bald faced lie. The Left won’t stand for nuclear power.
Gaius,
Have you ever read this article:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=smarter-use-of-nuclear-waste
I believe every American should read it. It should be required reading in every American high school science class.
If folks haven’t read it, please read all six pages.
Many are nearing the end of their original 4 year design life.
Hey Gaius .. I think you mean 40 years …
You’re right, I fixed it. Thank you.
WSJ article today, the 18th, has info about new, smaller units in development. Comments?
I personally like the way Westinghouse designed the AP1000 with more reliance on natural processes like convection, evaporation, etc. Their reduction in the amount of pipes, controls, pumps, wiring, etc. makes for a more reliable system. The passive emergency cooling system means that it can not be accidentally “shut off”.
I am intrigued by the thorium units being planned by India. Those might be interesting for things like municipal utilities. Maybe you could even encase them in so much concrete that security is not an issue. If it would take someone more than a couple of hours to get at the material, even if they got physical control of the site, their chances of success are practically zero.
Dunno. It’s behind a pay wall. Bad move on News Corp’s part, I think.