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
Here's the Wall Street Journal blog again:
Comments
Without new nukes, the state faces the clear prospect of becoming dependent on Russian LNG to keep the gas-fired generators spinning. What governor would want that as his legacy?
Joe Somsel
San Jose California
I'm not sure how the withdrawal from the Idaho clarifies anything.
Nuclear is politically very difficult in Oregon or Washington, but much less so in Idaho. I figured the plans were a way to meed the market need for new generation in Oregon and Washington without building new plants there - go around by building in Idaho. Canceling the plants stays that possibility.
I suspect we'll see something similar for California. There won't be additional plants for California; instead, additional Palo Verde units will be proposed. Close enough to transmit the power, but far enough away politically.
- Matthew B.