Tom Hartsfield reports that 1996 was the last year that a commercial nuclear reactor came online in the U.S. That project, at the Watts Barr plant in Tennessee, began in 1973. We have not built a new facility in 40 years. A new startup company called UPower is hoping to thaw some of this frozen market. Their plan is to think small. Currently, it is very difficult to open a new plant in the U.S. The reasons for this are well known, but they boil down to overregulation.
A continuous increase in the number and complexity of regulations beginning in the early 1970s caused the materials and construction cost to increase dramatically. This increased the time required to construct a plant to nearly triple. Longer construction time has two negative effects. First, the loans needed to pay the high initial cost of building a plant accrue far more interest during those extra years of construction. Thus, an exponential increase in cost occurs before the plant can begin its very profitable operating years. Second, during construction, new regulations often are introduced. This can require a redesign and perhaps even a partial tear-down and rebuild before the plant even opens. The worst part is that most of these regulations would have done little to prevent previous accidents. Nuclear engineers and scientists do not believe they are useful at all. Rules stay because it is bad politics to oppose them.
Nuclear regulations, driven by a hype-fuelled media and anti-nuclear fearmongering by such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, have strangled the building of nuclear plants. Ironically, these policies have directly contributed to our national reliance on fossil fuels, further damaging the environment and empowering tyrants in the Middle East. Given that nuclear power is our best energy strategy - as well as a good foreign policy strategy, UPower has proposed a small reactor to see if this may be an answer.
Resource Portal for I2M Clients, Associates, and Geoscientists
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-