Do you remember the President's statements in support of nuclear power and domestic drilling during the State of the Union? I did. In fact, when I heard them, I nearly fell out of my chair. It occurred to me that this would simply be rhetoric designed to make him look oh-so reasonable. Well--maybe not. Maybe there is some there, there.
News here of loan guarantees for two new nuclear plants in Georgia--a great first step for delivering on the promise of New Nuclear. I would love to see some movement now on domestic drilling--though it appears the Commonwealth of Virginia may already be moving in that direction.
The story makes a pretty dumb statement as far as I'm concerned, when it states "Currently only 20 percent of the country's energy needs are met by nuclear power." "Only"? How much of our energy needs are met by wind and solar, pray tell? 2%? 3%? Oh--and this by a source that has had no new capacity added in 31 years?
I used to work on nuclear energy issues in my previous job--and one of the things I remember was reading about John McCain's plan to build 45 new nuclear plants by 2030. Fact is, if every single one of those plants were built--the share of electricity provided by nuclear in the US would ACTUALLY FALL! This is due to our voracious and ever-growing demand for power.
Federal loan guarantees help suspicious commercial lenders provide the funding needed for these immensely expensive capital projects. Federal support for New Nuclear is essential for getting this industry off the mat and back into the game of providing a clean, reliable source of power for a growing country.
H/T Instapundit
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China Syndrome II "The Final Meltdown" in theaters soon.
I applaud our President on this one. I didn't have much confidence in his words to this effect at the SOTU. Apparently someone kept his feet to the fire. If he did so himself, I applaud him even more.
My only reservation, though, is whether and from where we will grow the nuclear engineers and the degree to which we will be able to entrust them with new plants (or the older ones vacated as the top engineers migrate to the new ones) when we have let this industry (as well as science and engineering education) go somewhat dormant for so long. And where will the US Navy get their new engineers when their submariners and carrier engineers flock to the civilian industry to meet the new demand signal?
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