NEI Nuclear Notes

Today sees the vote in the House on the Clean Energy and Security Act, aka Waxman-Markey aka the climate change bill, likely to be a very near thing on a very tight vote margin. As you might imagine, this is last ditch time for those who want the bill and those who don’t. Greenpeace says no : Since the Waxman-Markey bill left the Energy and Commerce committee, yet another fleet of industry lobbyists has weakened the bill even more, and further widened the gap between what Waxman-Markey does and what science demands. As a result, Greenpeace opposes this bill in its current form. Which sounds to us like Greenpeace’s lobbyists need a good talking-to. Heritage’s Ben Lieberman says no : Inflicting economic pain is what this is all about. That is how the ever-tightening emissions targets will be met. Well, it probably isn’t about inflicting pain. The goal would seem to be to avoid inflicting pain. The New York Times is going for yes : The bill...

Lots of strikingly good news in the nuclear sphere today: Let’s take them one at a time. The Department of Energy has introduced a scholarship program : U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced nearly $9 million in awards to support the next generation of American nuclear energy development.  Under the Nuclear Energy Universities Program, the Department of Energy will provide $2.9 million in scholarships and fellowships to 86 U.S. nuclear science and engineering (NS&E) students, and will offer more than $6 million in grants to 29 U.S. universities and colleges in 23 states.  We’re so used to huge numbers coming out of the government that our first thought was that this was pretty paltry. Millions? Should be billions . But no, this is more than enough to get the ball rolling: Four-year and two-year accredited universities or colleges including community colleges and trade schools were eligible to apply for an infrastructure grant.  Award amounts...