Senator McCain on Energy Security

Here's U.S. Senator John McCain from a Sunday morning interview he did with Fox News:

And the second lesson we should have learned from this, and what’s going on in Venezuela with Mr. Chavez, and what Putin did vis-a-vis the Ukraine, we’ve got to get quickly on a track to energy independence from foreign oil. And that means, among other things, going back to nuclear power.

But we better understand the vulnerabilities that our economy and our very lives have that when we’re dependent on Iranian mullahs, and wackos in Venezuela, and now Mr. Putin obviously deciding at least under one occasion to exercise the oil card, which never happened in all the days of the former Soviet Union.

Thanks to AZ Congress Watch for the pointer. And there's more from James Chang.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Environment Energy, Politics, Economics, Senator John McCain

Comments

Anonymous said…

First off: don't get me wrong here, I'm rabidly pro-nuclear.

Are we also in danger of foreign cutoff of fissile material? Didn't we shut down US enrichment because we are getting so much from the former Soviet Union? Does this leave us vulnerable on this front?

Obviously a much smaller concern than oil. But is it still something to worry about?

Matthew

January 23, 2006 at 2:12 PM

Eric McErlain said…

Last April in San Antonio, our CEO, Skip Bowman, addressed this issue, among others, at the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference. Click here for that text.

January 23, 2006 at 3:03 PM

distantbody said…

That's a great link Eric.

As for the senators comments, they're welcome, but they are frustratingly small at this stage in the game.

January 24, 2006 at 9:13 AM

Don Kosloff said…

Matthew,

The answers to your four questions are:
1. No
2. No
3. No
4. No. It is something to consider in determining the amount of foreign uranium to stockpile.

January 26, 2006 at 1:19 PM

How Nanomaterials Can Make Nuclear Reactors Safer and More Efficient

The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior communications advisor at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald.

From the batteries in our cell phones to the clothes on our backs, "nanomaterials" that are designed molecule by molecule are working their way into our economy and our lives. Now there’s some promising work on new materials for nuclear reactors.

Reactors are a tough environment. The sub atomic particles that sustain the chain reaction, neutrons, are great for splitting additional uranium atoms, but not all of them hit a uranium atom; some of them end up in various metal components of the reactor. The metal is usually a crystalline structure, meaning it is as orderly as a ladder or a sheet of graph paper, but the neutrons rearrange the atoms, leaving some infinitesimal voids in the structure and some areas of extra density. The components literally grow, getting longer and thicker. The phenomenon is well understood and designers compensate for it with a …

Missing the Point about Pennsylvania’s Nuclear Plants

A group that includes oil and gas companies in Pennsylvania released a study on Monday that argues that twenty years ago, planners underestimated the value of nuclear plants in the electricity market. According to the group, that means the state should now let the plants close.

Huh?

The question confronting the state now isn’t what the companies that owned the reactors at the time of de-regulation got or didn’t get. It’s not a question of whether they were profitable in the '80s, '90s and '00s. It’s about now. Business works by looking at the present and making projections about the future.

Is losing the nuclear plants what’s best for the state going forward?

Pennsylvania needs clean air. It needs jobs. And it needs protection against over-reliance on a single fuel source.

What the reactors need is recognition of all the value they provide. The electricity market is depressed, and if electricity is treated as a simple commodity, with no regard for its benefit to clean air o…

Why Nuclear Plant Closures Are a Crisis for Small Town USA

Nuclear plants occupy an unusual spot in the towns where they operate: integral but so much in the background that they may seem almost invisible. But when they close, it can be like the earth shifting underfoot.

Lohud.com, the Gannett newspaper that covers the Lower Hudson Valley in New York, took a look around at the experience of towns where reactors have closed, because the Indian Point reactors in Buchanan are scheduled to be shut down under an agreement with Gov. Mario Cuomo.

From sea to shining sea, it was dismal. It wasn’t just the plant employees who were hurt. The losses of hundreds of jobs, tens of millions of dollars in payrolls and millions in property taxes depressed whole towns and surrounding areas. For example:

Vernon, Vermont, home to Vermont Yankee for more than 40 years, had to cut its municipal budget in half. The town closed its police department and let the county take over; the youth sports teams lost their volunteer coaches, and Vernon Elementary School lost th…

NEI Nuclear Notes

Search This Blog