Over the past few weeks, we've been pointing to news concerning California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore's efforts to get the state to overturn its long-standing moratorium against new nuclear build. Now we're beginning to see some bloggers stand up and support it, like Brian Wang and Kirk Sorensen.
You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap...
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http://djysrv.blogspot.com/2007/03/us-nuclear-plants-next-stop-india.html
AB 719 (Devore) which would have struck down the State of California's long standing ban on new reactor construction until there is a permanent nuclear waste management plant is developed died in the California State Assembly's Natural Resource Committee on April 16, 2007.
Committee chairwoman Loni Hancock is quoted as saying that "the federal waste disposal program has been plagued with technical and legal challenges, managerial problems, licensing delays, persistent weaknesses in quality assurance for the program, and increasing costs."
The Devore bill claimed to address the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to curb global warming. According to the California Energy Commission, the most significant reductions in CO2 emissions from electricity generation can be achieved through energy efficiency programs and integrating renewable energy resources -- solar, wind, thermal, biomass and hydropower-- into electricity supplies.
gunter, nirs