Just when we thought nuclear power might be on a comeback, well, stuff happened. Only time will tell if Georgia and South Carolina can “jump-start” a nuclear renaissance. Let’s hope we can, because low-cost base-load energy — the amount of electricity available 24 hours a day — is a key to economic growth.
This was illustrated dramatically for me while I was in Germany this summer meeting with numerous officials, including an economic minister for the country. As he told me how BMW was having its upcoming lightweight electric-car carbon-fiber body manufactured in South Carolina, he said, “The United States is about to enjoy mass re-industrialization because of your cheap energy prices.” I couldn’t help but smile. He went on to tell me of other European companies setting up shop in the United States for the same reason.
But the reality is that “new” nuclear power continues to sputter. Remember back about five years ago? States were working hard with private utilities in hopes of building new commercial reactors. Then, we had the accident at Fukushima in Japan, which brought more regulatory uncertainty. At the same time, our economy was in recession, with natural gas prices continuing to drop — primarily due to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a method for obtaining natural gas.
Meanwhile, in our “Silicon Valley of Nuclear Power,” the work continued because a course had been charted. Georgia was building two new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle. SCANA was building two identical units at the V.C. Summer Plant near Jenkinsville, S.C. In between sat the 310 square-mile Savannah River Site, a highly protected federal facility run by the Department of Energy, where a special MOX facility — a mixed-oxide fuel factory, which recycles weapons-grade plutonium into fuel that can be used in nuclear power plants — is being constructed amid a sea of other national-security-related projects.
There are three good reasons we need to complete each of these projects, despite the cost issues each are experiencing right now.
via Echols: Nuclear power can be economic boon to Southeast | Online Athens.
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