Former EPA Secretary: Nuclear Energy Has a Future

William K. Reilly, the former Environmental Protection Agency administrator who served when President Bush's father was in the White House, said Thursday that nuclear power has a bright future in a world increasingly concerned with climate change.

"I think it definitely has a future," Reilly said, adding that nuclear plants have the potential to supply large amounts of power to the country while sharply reducing utilities' emissions of greenhouse gases.

[...]

Reilly, in his address, said the biggest obstacle to nuclear power is the widespread concern about how to dispose of the spent radioactive fuel. But he said the country can and ultimately will solve that problem.

"The country has got to get beyond it," Reilly said. "In my view, nuclear waste disposal is a political issue, but not a technologically unsolvable issue."

Reilly also expressed concerns about license renewal of existing plants. Click here for an NEI fact sheet on the subject.

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NEI Nuclear Notes

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