Dr. Conca reports that an unexpected and alarming development is occurring in the Obama Administration, the White House wants to eliminate the position of the Director for Nuclear Energy Policy at the National Security Council. This is a bad idea. Abandoning this position will compromise the competitive position of U.S. companies. President Obama has had an uneven record on nuclear energy and the possible loss of this position is especially perplexing given the Presidential support for nuclear energy in an all of the above approach to energy policy. On the one hand, the President supports addressing climate change, supported the Paris COP21 meetings and has stated that nuclear is essential in playing a role in combating global warming. He set up and carried out a very effective series of global nuclear security summits. And he has publicly supported Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) with an Executive Order that defined energy from new SMR technologies as an alternative energy source alongside biomass(?), solar and geothermal. On the other hand, the President has been absent on the crucial issue of premature reactor closings even as his own EPA Chief Gina McCarthy and his former Director, Carol Browner, have flatly stated that these premature closings are a threat to our ability to address climate change. Obama is also not supporting recycling of spent fuel. In fact, most funded clean energy requests have been to renewables and not for new nuclear, even though nuclear supplies over 60% of our clean energy. Even though President Obama knows, understands and appreciates nuclear energy, having come from Illinois, he has run up against the intense ideology of some Democrats. The Party is deeply divided on nuclear energy, often because of the confusion between the issues of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, safety, and because of the long-history of misrepresentations of nuclear from anti-nuke activists, and lack of support for Yucca Mountain. Read on....
Re-Directed URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/06/01/obamas-uneven-scorecard-on-nuclear/#1ab64c6b61e5
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