NEI Nuclear Notes

In advance of Senator John McCain's tour of the Fermi 2 nuclear plant this afternoon, the Obama campaign's press office has just released this statement Barack Obama supports safe and secure nuclear energy. Nuclear power represents more than 70 percent of our noncarbon generated electricity. It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power as an option. However, before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, Obama thinks key issues must be addressed including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation. Barack Obama introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to establish guidelines for tracking, controlling and accounting for spent fuel at nuclear power plants. To prevent international nuclear material from falling into terrorist hands abroad, Obama worked closely with Sen. Dick Lugar (R - IN) to strengthen international efforts to identify and stop the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction. As preside...

With Senator John McCain touring the Fermi 2 nuclear plant in Newport tomorrow and Senator Barack Obama delivering a major energy speech today in Lansing, the state of Michigan, and its 17 electoral votes, is center stage this week in the presidential campaign. The pull quote from Obama's address In addition, we’ll find safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste. And we’ll invest in the technology that will allow us to use more coal, America’s most abundant energy source, with the goal of creating five “first-of-a-kind” coal-fired demonstration plants with carbon capture and sequestration. Of course, too often, the problem is that all of this new energy technology never makes it out of the lab and onto the market because there’s too much risk and too much cost involved in starting commercial-scale clean energy businesses. So we will remove some of this cost and this risk by directing billions in loans and capital to entrepreneurs who are willing to create clean ene...

On Monday I posted on the RNC's first TV ad to be released during this presidential campaign. Today, Factcheck.org , the nonpartisan group funded by the Annenberg Public Policy Center , takes a look. An excerpt from their article, " A False Accusation About Energy " No to "Nuclear"? We’ve been through this. Obama has not said a flat-out "no" to nuclear, as the ad claims. Instead he has said he is in favor of nuclear energy if it is clean and safe, saying in his energy plan that "it is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power from the table." But it’s true McCain is more aggressive in his support of nuclear power, giving it a prominent place in his energy plan , with the goal of creating 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 and as many as 100 total. Obama’s energy plan contains no such initiative.

Obama surrogates Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), and Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) discussed the RNC's "Balance" ad with reporters in a just-completed conference call. Below is a transcription of the final question asked during the Q&A. Hi, it's Susan Demas, again, from MIRS newsletter. The ad says that Senator Obama is against nuclear power and I was wondering what his position is on nuclear and I was also wondering if an increase in nuclear power could help your states with providing jobs. This is Josh Earnest with the [Obama] campaign. I can take the first part of that. As you point out, that is a very misleading attack against Senator Obama's proposals. What he has said is that he wants to work to find a safe way to store the waste that is generated by nuclear energy production. And once we can do that, he would be supportive of considering expanding nuclear options to increase our energy capacity in this country. I'll leave ...

As an admitted media-obsessed political junkie, I enjoy watching any political ad; if there were campaign ads out there by candidates running for dog catcher, I'd probably watch 'em. With advertising budgets a bit bigger and the stakes a whole lot larger, the presidential campaign ads are, for me, must-see viewing. The first RNC TV spot to be released , " Balance ," has really caught my eye. Perhaps it was just pure nostalgia - that 1970's Social Studies class filmstrip aesthetic really took me back. (Here's a helpful Wiki link to " Filmstrip " for those under the age of 30.) More likely it was the ad's claim that Obama has said "No to Nuclear Power." The creators cite a Newton, Iowa Town Hall event from Dec. 31, 2007 as the source for quotation. A couple of quibbles: the event happened on Dec. 30th , not the 31st. More significantly, the full transcript shows Obama supporting nuclear energy at the end of his response to the questione...

Reuters is running an article today, Nuclear energy heats up US presidential campaign , that provides a handy one-pager on the candidates and their support for nuclear energy. John McCain embraces it. Barack Obama wants to address its flaws. Hillary Clinton is cautious but not opposed. Nuclear power—controversial in the United States and throughout much of the world—is on the agenda of all three U.S. presidential candidates as they seek to diversify the country's energy mix and reduce dependence on foreign oil. Interviews with top policy advisers to the three White House hopefuls reveal a varied approach to the technology that some observers see as a necessary answer to fighting climate change and others view as expensive and dangerous. Update : Reuters has published a sidebar, Factbox , presenting each candidate's positions in more detail.

In an interview on "Meet the Press," Sen. Barack Obama (D) was asked by host Tim Russert to discuss his position on Nuclear Energy. Russert : In terms of climate change, global warming, you've talked about wind and solar and biofuels. What about nuclear? All—in all realistic assessment, don't we need more nuclear power in order to wean ourselves off of those same fuels that are contaminating the world? Obama : I think we do have to look at nuclear, and what we've got to figure out is can we store the material properly? Can we make sure that they're secure? Can we deal with the expense? Because the problem is, is that a lot of our nuclear industry, it reinvents the wheel. Each nuclear power plant that is proposed has a new design, has—it, it has all kinds of changes, there are all sorts of cost overruns. So it has not been an effective option. That doesn't mean that it can't be an effective option, but we're going to have to figure out storage and...

The Wall Street Journal's blog provided some insights on where the three presidential candidates stand on nuclear power. McCain: Douglas Holtz-Eakin, policy director for Sen. McCain, said nukes can’t be left out . ‘The Senate Majority leader is the problem—we have Yucca Mountain [storage facility], we have the technology. I can’t see why we don’t take advantage of that,” he said. Clinton: Gene Sperling, chief economic adviser for Sen. Clinton and a veteran of the other Clinton White House, made it clear that New York’s junior senator “ does not embrace nuclear power ,” for a host of reasons ranging from Yucca Mountain’s uncertain storage to worries over nuclear proliferation. She doesn’t want to take nuclear power—which accounts for 20% of U.S. electricity—“off the table,” she just doesn’t want to see any more of the stuff until it dies of natural causes, he said. Obama: Jason Grumet, Sen. Obama’s energy adviser, appeared to leave the door cracked open—at first . “We have to over...

"I don't think that we can take nuclear power off the table..." Here's a clip of Senator Barack Obama at a recent debate in Hanover, NH: Click here for archived NEI Notes posts about Senator Obama.

Here's another YouTube find: Representatives from the Presidential campaigns of Senator Barack Obama, Senator John Edwards, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain all addressing where nuclear energy fits into their vision for future energy policy . The following was shot earlier this week at the National Press Club: Thanks to Climate Progress for the pointer.

Over at both MyDD and DailyKos , a diarist named TomP something of a voters guide to the positions of the leading Democratic candidates for President on nuclear energy. MyDD DailyKos There's really not much here that we haven't covered at NEI Nuclear Notes . But what caught my eye was that the diarist, who is against the expansion of nuclear energy, included a link to the NEI Web site in his diary.

Grist is running an interview with Senator Barack Obama on energy and the environment . Here's what he had to say about nuclear energy: I think that with nuclear power, we have got to see if there are ways for us to store the radioactive material in a safe, environmentally sound way, and if we can do that and deal with the some of the safely and security issues, [nuclear power] is something that we should look at. Senator Obama has been remarkably consistent on this issue, something we began noting back in 2005 . Thanks to the Obama Blog for the pointer.

In last night's CNN/YouTube Democratic debate , one questioner asked the candidates what they thought about increasing the use of nuclear energy as a way to provide affordable electricity while constraining greenhouse gas emissions and promoting energy independence. Here's how Senators John Edwards, Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton answered the question: This isn't the first time we've seen these candidates address the issue. For our file on Senator Edwards, click here . For Senator Obama, click here . For Senator Clinton, click here . UPDATE : There's some discussion of this particular question over at MyDD . ANOTHER UPDATE : More from The Daily Green . FINAL UPDATE : Some thoughts from NJ Business Matters . EVENING UPDATE : Some interesting thoughts from the Las Vegas Gleaner , while Common Dreams isn't happy with the proceedings at all.