nuclear-news

Nuclear Information and Resource Service faces up to nuclear lobby in 2011

(USA) Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Michael Mariotte, 1 Jan 2011 This year we’ll be facing new attempts to make taxpayers take the financial risks of new reactor construction; new efforts to put dirty and dangerous nuclear power into a “Clean Energy Standard” that would be a disincentive for investment into renewable energy; new efforts–especially by new House Energy Committee chairman (and nuclear ideologue) Fred Upton (R-MI)–to weaken EPA clean water standards so reactors like Oyster Creek and other (and potentially even new reactors) wouldn’t be forced to build expensive cooling towers or close.

Radioactive waste will also be an issue in 2011: Energy Secretary Chu’s Blue Ribbon Commission is expected to release its final recommendations during the year for a new high-level waste policy, while the industry searches ever more boldly and desperately for a new dumping ground for its “low-level” waste.

Our goal is to build a nuclear-free carbon-free energy future. And progress is being made. Already, according to a report last week from the Energy Information Administration, renewables provide as much basic energy to the nation as nuclear power. Solar power’s remarkable drop in costs over the past few years now make it competitive with nuclear power in most locations. Offshore wind is poised to take off in a major way along the Atlantic coast, and onshore wind continues to be the cheapest source of electricity almost everywhere.
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org

January 1, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general