Today's Wall Street Journal Reports:
Nuclear Power Industry Hopeful of Revival
With the re-election of President Bush, the nuclear power industry thinks the next two to three years may be the time to push hard for regulatory approval of new nuclear power plants, the Wall Street Journal reported. DOE has told two separate power consortiums that it will share the expected $500-million cost to seek approval for new reactors. The groups said they hope to win NRC approval by 2009.
Wrote the Journal: "Faced with skyrocketing natural-gas prices and uncertainty about the costs of containing carbon emissions from coal-fired plants, electric companies believe nuclear plants are becoming more economically competitive and safer." Manufacturers such as General Electric, Westinghouse Electric, and Atomic Energy of Canada also have been pushing hard to sell newly-designed reactors.
William D. Magwood IV, director of DOE's office of nuclear energy, science, and technology said: "There's lots of enthusiasm for what we're trying to accomplish here. If both of these goes to fruition, we could see new nuclear plants by 2014." Exelon CEO John Rowe was quoted earlier this summer as saying: "I cannot see any energy future ... without an expanded nuclear base."
Approval of the proposed storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nev., is considered vital because power companies have said they need a storage site before agreeing to build any new reactors. Heavy opposition is also expected from those who question the safety of nuclear power.
Wall Street Journal, pg. A-1 , Nov. 9.
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