Posts Tagged: nuclear reactors

Go to the WSJ for your 24-7 nuclear power coverage

Maybe the Wall Street Journal is trying to set some kind of record.  A couple of days ago it ran four stories about nuclear power, covering issues like earthquake safety at nuke plants, the potential for danger from powerful floods at a Nebraska facility, a push by Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Gregory Jaczko to move quickly to institute new safety standards, and debates and discussions within the Nuclear Regulatory Council about reforms in U.S. nuclear safety practice following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan. (more…)

This Nuclear Option Could Be a Stalling Tactic

The Washington Post’s Michael Shear and Steven Mufson report on the Energy Department’s guarantee of $8.3 billion in loans for two nuclear reactors in Georgia:

By helping to finance the construction of the reactors — the first new U.S. nuclear power units in more than 30 years — Obama is hoping to jump-start his efforts to pass comprehensive climate-change legislation, which has stalled in Congress in the face of GOP opposition.

The president is also casting the nuclear initiative as a centerpiece of his plan to produce clean-energy jobs, although construction on the two reactors would not begin for more than a year.

Or not. As I reported in my story on a possible “clean coal” power plant in rural Illinois, the wisdom of these Energy Dept.-funded programs is unclear absent global warming legislation. (more…)