Nuclear

PUF toured the Vogtle 3 - 4 nuclear power construction site near Augusta GA on March 1, 2017. At four times the size of New York's Central Park, this place is huge.

Toshiba recently announced that financial write-offs related to its troubled nuclear division, Westinghouse Electric, would total about $6.2 billion dollars. Since the write-off announcements, Toshiba's stock price has been cut in half. Toshiba's financial collapse changes the face of the nuclear industry.

Many supporters of nuclear technology have tried to correct significant challenges on assorted issues from the public, the media, and the scientific, regulatory and political sectors. But these efforts failed; they could not acknowledge the true illness and pursue the cure. This discussion focuses on what that illness is, how the industry has treated it, how to cure it, and one way to achieve a new political and regulatory environment that can save the patient.

Advanced nuclear technologies are closer to reality than you might think. To make a breakthrough, they'll need to provide significant advantages over current technologies, such as operating at low pressures and very high temperatures, and including inherent safety features.

Consider the current U.S. low power price environment as the country shifts away from coal and toward cleaner energy sources to reduce carbon emissions. What are the prospects that nuclear energy will continue to play a role in the U.S. power mix? That's the question that Michael Haggarty addressed in a recent report on global nuclear power generation.

The Electric Power Research Institute, EPRI, will publish nuclear aging management and inspection guidance in early 2017. These will address the potential for chloride-induced stress corrosion cracking in welded stainless steel canisters in dry-cask storage systems.

If we had to choose a new nuclear generating technology today, we would emphasize one that had no potential for catastrophic failure and minimized problems of long term waste storage. Perhaps we should revisit the path not taken: a thorium-fueled nuclear reactor design.

In a world where carbon dioxide has become somehow toxic, carbon-free energy sources are sought after all over the world. Nuclear energy is the other white meat, so to speak. Renewable nuclear energy, which can be recycled, has great value and should be encouraged. Here are five things policy makers can do to enhance the taste of nuclear energy.

If nuclear were subsidized at the same levels as solar and wind, or allowed to contribute to state RPS, nuclear would continue to be highly economical.

Dr. James Hansen, the renowned climate change scientist, has said that nuclear power is essential to combat climate change. We disagree. Nuclear energy is a boondoggle.