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Will the USA build any more nuclear power plants?
The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Jon Wellinghoff, said today of new coal and nuclear plants, “We may not need any, ever.”
“I think [new nuclear expansion] is kind of a theoretical question, because I don’t see anybody building these things, I don’t see anybody having one under construction,” Wellington said.
Building nuclear plants is cost-prohibitive, he said, adding that the last price he saw was more than $7,000 a kilowatt — more expensive than solar energy. “Until costs get to some reasonable cost, I don’t think anybody’s going to [talk] that seriously,” he said. “Coal plants are sort of in the same boat, they’re not quite as expensive.”
http://climateprogress.org/2009/04/22/ferc-chair-wellinghoff-nonew-nuclear-and-coal-plants/
Do you think the USA will build any more nuclear power plants?
Personally, I wish we would do something like this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor
We could quickly shut down all the coal plants, burn all the existing nuclear waste, plutonium and decommissioned weapons material.
Light water reactors are a really bad design. They were created for political / economic reasons, not on scientific merit.
There are several viable alternative reactor designs and alternative nuclear fuel cycles, any one of which is better than the LWR.
But when was the last time something was done in this country based on scientific merit, long term goals and for the benefit of everyone?
I think some sort of resurgence is inevitable considering the growth in energy demand and concern over climate change. If in 10 or 20 years warming and negative impacts accelerate we may even see a crash program.
But as was pointed out, if renewables prove to be cheaper and easier then maybe we’ll get a crash program there. We can only hope.
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