In the largest shift of power since 1948, Republicans took over the U.S. House on midterm election night. And the nuclear industry could benefit from the Republican takeover as part of the clean energy legislation.
In a statement released the morning of Election Day, Don Gillispie, CEO of Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc., said that if Republicans won, the other big winner would be nuclear power. Well, we do know that Republicans have won the House and have made up ground in the Senate as well, even though Democrats still hold the majority.
Historically there has been more support from Republicans for nuclear power. But Steve Corneli, senior vice president of market and climate policy for NRG Energy, said there is an increasing awareness from Democrats that nuclear power can be an important part of energy independence and a zero-carbon emission future.
Michigan representative Fred Upton, like many Republicans, is a supporter of nuclear power in the U.S. Upton is also a strong contender to head the House Energy and Commerce Committee; the committee that sees over the national energy policy.
"Through a greater commitment to nuclear, we have a unique opportunity to cut greenhouse gases, provide stability to our electrical supply and create jobs," Upton told Reuters.
John Boehner (R-OH) is expected to take over as the new Speaker of the House and is also a strong proponent of nuclear power.
"The new Congress will be more pro-nuclear than any Congress we've seen in decades," said Gillispie.
And President Obama continues to promote nuclear power, too.
“There’s been discussion about how we can restart our nuclear industry as a means of reducing our dependence on foreign oil and reducing greenhouse gases,” Obama said during a speech the day after the midterm elections. “Is that an area where we can move forward?”
As of now, that seems to be possible. The White House has requested an additional $36 billion in federal loan guarantees for new nuclear plants and it seems that Republicans are likely to support the measure, even with a big focus during the campaign on reducing government spending.
But Corneli said the interesting part is that the important policy measures that are needed to help jump start the nuclear renaissance are the ones with the lowest cost to federal treasury, and those are the federal loan guarantees, “which really don’t cost the treasury anything.”
“Essentially it is self-financing,” he said. “It seems like the stars could be lining up right now for a boost in nuclear power development.”
Corneli said nuclear is established and the existing fleet of nuclear reactors provide the lowest cost power currently on the grid, but there hasn’t been a new plant built in roughly 30 years.
“We actually think that nuclear power has the potential to be the real foundation of clean energy technology,” he said.
Gillispie seems to agree.
“When the history of nuclear power is written, Nov. 2, 2010 will be a major turning point for the industry," said Gillispie. "It will mark the beginning of a dramatic resurgence for nuclear power."
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In 2008 D.O.E. published a report on "Energy Sustainability" that stated that Nuclear Power is the only way for "Energy Sustainability" and that we will need Fast Neutron Generation 4 reactors with recycling in the future. The report was signed by all Nation Laboratory Directors including Dr Chu. The paper can be found as an appendage of "Energy Futures: Civilization in Balance" at www.allansalzberg.com under DOCUMENTS. We should begin a pilot plant no later than 2014 along with a Pyroprpcessing plant. Idaho would be the place to do this in large part do to INL. The most robust technology is GE/ Hitachi's S-PRISM liquid Sodium design which is based on ERB-2.These Gen 4 reactors can use our present wastes to produce America's electricity for 700 years. It is interesting that what is considered an insurmountable problem, in reality, an enormous treasure. The wastes that these reactors produce have short half lives and are safe in 300- 500 years rather than tens of millenia. This waste problem is easy to solve.
ReplyDeleteAt the very least there should be a quick study of this. Participants could include Dr Eric Loewen GE/ Hitachi, Dr Harold Macfarlane INL and representatives from the State of Idaho (Governor Otter,Senator Mike Crapo and Representatives Mike Simpsom District 2, Idaho and Raul Labrador Representative District 1 Idaho or their deignee's
There will a multi-trillion world wide market for this technology that we invented. We must proceed to insure that we get a large portion of this coming market.
Allan M Salzberg MD PhD
Gillespe, et al are being naive.
ReplyDeleteAll the thoughts about new nuclear construction (including all those license applications) were based upon the premise that there will be a price/limit placed on CO2 emissions at some point.
If there are no prospects for such a limit/price, even over the long term, no more nuclear projects will go forward, even if there were unlimited loan guarantees and extremely streamlined NRC reviews (along with any other form of marginal support that the Republicans will offer).
With no CO2 limits, nuclear will remain at least somewhat more expensive than coal, period.
The Republicans made huge gains, removing any chances for any type of climate legislation. Meanwhile, one of the only Democrats to surive was Harry Reid, so Yucca can continue to be blocked. In my view, this election was a disaster for nuclear power.
Cost of new nuclear is over $6,000/kw, so I don't think they'll be building any plant soon. Thankfully...
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of nuclear and Steve Corneli, check the report he wrote as an Asst. A.G. in Minnesota, exposing the nuclear utility's lie about "stranded costs." They were claiming they'd need reimbursement for stranded costs should deregulation happen, but Corneli exposed the lie, that it wasn't stranded costs, what was stranded was ASSETS and that instead,they owed ratepayers money. Any time you hear claims of "stranded costs," think of "stranded assets" (not that jurisdictions are considering deregulation now, now that there are so many horrifying examples of what deregulation means.
Oh, and here's a link to that Corneil Stranded Assets report from light years ago:
ReplyDeletehttp://legalectric.org/f/2007/04/corneli-stranded-assets-1997.pdf