Nuclear power is coming back into style, and perhaps just in time for the climate, and for the United States.Environmental groups, previously opposed to nuclear power, are starting to support the technology, as it represents the lesser of two evils compared to coal-fired electric power generation plants, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. And the choice is obvious enough: faced with either processing nuclear waste or seeing the atmosphere heat up to irreversible levels, via coal-producing climate change, nuclear technology wins.
The number of nuclear plants being built world-wide, 53, is double the total of just five years ago, The Post reported.
Market Analysis: One of U.S.'s biggest policy mistakes of the current decade -- after the 2001 Bush income tax cut that turned a federal budget surplus into a budget deficit -- was the U.S.'s near-abandonment of lower carbon-emission nuclear technology for electric power. The U.S. literally delayed a chance to become more energy independent and also reduce the amount of climate-warming gases it spews into the atmosphere.
Now, the U.S. must play catch-up for the next two decades. Consider these nuclear-power-as-a-percent-of-electricity stats: France, 76%; Sweden, 42%; South Korea, 37%; Finland, 30%; United States: 20%.
Closing Bell: When We All Love the PIIGS (NBG, SQNM, PG, ERTS, KO)
Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks List Shrinks from 26 to 21
Chasing Value: Hasbro Earnings Makes My Point
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-24-2009 @ 11:03PM
arnie said...
I am not an opponent of nuclear energy but i believe we should first address and solve the problem of waste disposal. All the present time waste is stored on sight with no plan for its eventual removal. I'm from Idaho and we are in the middle of a county debate over the acceptance of a nuclear plant near our small city. We have INEL at Arco which is presently storing waste since it's inseption.
The present administration has cut the funding for our only national waste sight at Yucca mountain Nevada.
11-25-2009 @ 2:31AM
sgentilejr said...
Electricity demand went down 10% in the year 2009 inside the USA. Electricity demand will continue to decline year after year simply because we are seeing more and more people lose their jobs and more and more factory closings. People with empty pockets cannot afford electricity.
11-25-2009 @ 5:42AM
Dan Barnett said...
arnie is quite right. Waste disposal is oneof the two major problems. The other is the potential for the fuel to be converted to weapons use. No one can make a bomb out of 50 tons of coal. The good news on this front is that there are plans to convert Uranium based techinology to Thorium which can not be converted to weapons grade use. The company doing this work is Lightbridge (LTBR)
I disagreee with sgentilejr. We simply can not expect a decline in electricity use year after year. The recession is ending (or will end sometime) and the population is growing and becoming more electricity intensive. People need lights & refrigerators no matter how bad the finances.