Last Thursday, the private used fuel repository, Private Fuel Storage, LLC passed a major milestone with the decision by the Atomic Saftey Licensing Board to remove the last of the administrative objections on the project lodged by the state of Utah. This decision moves the project closer to a final licensing vote by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Hopefully this decision will soon allow the industry to demonstrate once again that it can move used nuclear fuel safley and securely on the nation's highways and railroads.
Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu
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