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Opponents in Missouri mobilize over positioning nuke plants as ‘clean’ –

Opponents in Missouri mobilize over positioning nuke plants as ‘clean’
By Jeffrey Tomich ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 02/08/2009When the “Clean and Renewable Energy Construction Act” was introduced in the Missouri Senate, the bill’s title evoked images of new wind turbines sprouting from the northwest Missouri plains and solar panels lining St. Louis rooftops.A more fitting image might be two more massive cooling towers rising in Callaway County.While the legislation proposed last month may one day aid the development of more renewable energy or a next-generation coal-fired power plant, there’s little doubt that its primary purpose is helping AmerenUE build a second nuclear reactor. It would do so by removing a key barrier — a 1976 law that prohibits the utility from charging customers for the plant before it’s complete.The nuclear industry spent more than two decades repairing an image badly damaged a generation ago by accidents and cost overruns. Now, proponents here and around the country are going a step further by pushing nuclear power as a greener energy source than coal and a key to helping curb global warming.
In the legislation that would repeal Missouri’s ban on charges for construction work in progress, the text uses the word “clean” 26 times, while “nuclear” appears once. In Florida, a utility planning two new reactors unsuccessfully tried last fall to persuade regulators to define new nuclear plants as renewable energy.

Such efforts have been met with disdain by environmentalists, many of whom say categorizing nuclear power as “clean” energy is greenwashing.
“They’re putting a green bow on a box of radioactive waste that’s never going to go away,” said Kathleen Logan Smith, executive director of St. Louis-based Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

Nationwide, applications have been submitted for 26 new reactors in 14 states, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The agency has been told to expect filings for an additional nine by the end of next year. And wherever new plants are proposed, pro- and anti-nuclear groups are clashing.

02/08/2009 – Opponents in Missouri mobilize over positioning nuke plants as ‘clean’ – STLtoday.com

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radiation, uranium

February 9, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | spinbuster, USA