Polls, and not just those from NEI, show growing support for nuclear energy – we think NEI can claim some credit for public opinion coming around - and good polls makes supporting nuclear energy easier for even Democratic Congressfolks to do. Consequently, the administration has had to try to provide a fuller explanation, especially to the Senate, of their plans for moving forward. These have been positive developments – so far, so good.
But Congress and the administration still shows reluctance, perhaps it is a hangover from the No Nukes 1980s. Exciting times, those. Thus, rather than act precipitously, we get The Dance of the Blue Ribbons:
Sen. Harry Reid said today he is working to form a study group to come up with alternatives to burying nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.
"I am going to have a blue ribbon panel to take a look at that," the Nevada Democrat said in a meeting with reporters. He did not give details other than he expected the group would be given a year to report its findings.
Reid often gets cast as the villain in the Yucca Mountain issue – it’s in his state and an article of Nevada political faith is that Yucca Mountain must be opposed – but Reid is actually pro-nuclear. We don’t think he’s anything but sincere here.
And the administration? Stand back, here it comes:
[DOE Secretary Steven] Chu said he was convening a "blue-ribbon panel" of experts to "develop a long-term strategy that must include the waste disposal plan," after Obama's budget ruled out a proposed national repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.
"I don't want to suggest what this blue-ribbon panel might determine but let me stress this will be done this year," he told a Senate budget committee hearing on the energy proposals in Obama's 3.55-trillion-dollar budget.
Well, all right, that’s nine months for DOE and a year for the Senate. While we couldn’t blame you for a little cynicism here – kick-the-can is, after all, a rather old-fashioned game – for a Democratic government, this is a tectonic shift in thinking. If they need some time to do that thinking, fine. We’re pretty sure how this will come out – especially with the climate change conference in Copenhagen happening in the midst of it - so fine.
It’s an alpaca. He lives at Colorado’s Bella Vita Ranch, where they seem to have a lot of blue ribbon winners. Take a gander, if you’d like an alpaca for the kids.
Comments
Somehow that doesn't sound like a fair trade.
(How fire can be domesticated)
Sen. Harry Reid said today he is working to form a study group to come up with alternatives to burying nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.
I would hope that we could do better than just throwing away slightly used nuclear fuel. How about a change where we use part of the $0.001 per kWHr paid by the nuclear power plant operators to incitivize fuel reprocessing and develop advanced reactors to use thorium and all that left-over U238. Burying only the fission products would greatly extend the life of Yucca Mountain and also greatly reduce the time the waste products need to be contained.
1. Store spent fuel in central repositories within the States that are currently producing spent fuel
2. Reprocess the material at these repositories in order to extract the plutonium and uranium
3. Utilize the extracted plutonium and uranium in on site Federal nuclear reactors to produce base-load electricity and hydrocarbon synfuels and industrial chemicals.
The low enriched reprocessed uranium could be used in on site CANDU type reactors, or enriched to be used in light water reactors.
The plutonium could be used as MOX for Light Water Reactors or as part of the new Thorium fuel fuel type elements.
The residual radioactive elements could be easily stored and secured on site in cask until the final long term decommissioning of the Federal site a few hundred years from now (probably in the 24th century). Afterwards,, this residual waste could finally be moved off-site to permanent deep sea, remote island, or even extraterrestrial repositories.
The Nuplex Solution
http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/1999/02/nuplex-solution.html
I find the poll results very surprising (and encouraging). Not only does new nuclear win on the yes or no question, but it actually is the #1 choice for new plant construction, new plant for your local area, and (most amazingly) first choice for govt. support/reasearch, even over renewables?!
It almost sounds too good to be true, but this isn't even an industry poll! We've known for some time that communities that already have nukes strongly support additional units, but this was a nationwide poll and people wanted a new nuke in their local (greenfield) area more than any other type of plant! Wow.
We need to make the Dems aware of this public sentiment, and tell them not to listen to the dogmatic left wing of their party. They need to understand that these long-established anti-nuclear views/organisations do not reflect the views of the people.
Jim Hopf