nuclear-news

Even nuclear industry experts know that the business is a dead cat

The nuclear landscape includes aging plants, rising global demand for energy, competition from cheap natural gas and environmental standards likely to be toughened after the Fukushima crisis in Japan. 

A long-anticipated U.S. “nuclear renaissance” has run into headwinds – sagging demand for electricity as the economy slumped, investors wary of new plants that will cost $10 billion or more and then the crisis at Fukushima.

Nuclear meeting opens in Charlotte with debt worries, News Observer BY BRUCE HENDERSON , 22 May 12 The nearly 600 executives who convened Tuesday for the Nuclear Energy Institute’s annual conference came to Charlotte with work finally under way on the first new reactors in the U.S. in three decades.

But the conference opened at the Westin with sobering assessments of the nation’s economic and energy policies.

Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson and UNC president emeritus Erskine
Bowles, who chaired a deficit-busting panel whose recommendations have
yet to be adopted, described a nation sagging under debt……. U.S.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield, who represents 24 mostly rural counties in
eastern North Carolina, sounded more upbeat as he repeated President
Barack Obama’s goals of cleaner, cheaper energy. That vision “must
include nuclear,” he added.

Butterfield serves on the House Energy and Commerce committee and its
nuclear issues working group. He said the proposed Duke
Energy-Progress Energy merger would advance the companies’ investments
in new power plants and infrastructure. But he acknowledged that the
nation has no such blueprint for its energy future……. The nuclear landscape includes aging plants, rising global demand for energy, competition from cheap natural gas and environmental standards likely to be toughened after the Fukushima crisis in Japan…….
A long-anticipated U.S. “nuclear renaissance” has run into headwinds – sagging demand for electricity as the economy slumped, investors wary of new plants that will cost $10 billion or more and then the crisis at Fukushima.

Of 18 applications for U.S. combined operating and construction
licenses, five have been suspended and one converted to an early-site
planning application.

May 23, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA