U.S. Seeks to Boost Nuclear Power After Decades of Inertia
U.S. Seeks to Boost Nuclear Power After Decades of Inertia
Measures moving through Congress to encourage new reactors are receiving broad bipartisan support, as lawmakers embrace a once-contentious technology.
Measures moving through Congress to encourage new reactors are receiving broad bipartisan support, as lawmakers embrace a once-contentious technology.
The House this week overwhelmingly passed legislation meant to speed up the development of a new generation of nuclear power plants, the latest sign that a once-contentious source of energy is now attracting broad political support in Washington.
The 365-to-36 vote on Wednesday reflected the bipartisan nature of the bill, known as the Atomic Energy Advancement Act. It received backing from Democrats who support nuclear power because it does not emit greenhouse gases and can generate electricity 24 hours a day to supplement solar and wind power. It also received support from Republicans who have downplayed the risks of climate change but who say that nuclear power could bolster the nation’s economy and energy security.
“It’s been fascinating to see how bipartisan advanced nuclear power has become,” said Joshua Freed, who leads the climate and energy program at Third Way, a center-left think tank. “This is not an issue where there’s some big partisan or ideological divide.”
Holy shit that's big
This is a very important win for green energy.
Few things give me hope for the future at least we got this.
Hopefully the anti-science crowd gets distracted by AI
This would have been great 30 years ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they're doing it. But we're already fucked at this point.
Typical, the republicans only got on board because they think there will be a payday in it for them.
FINALLY
About damn time
All I can think about with that title is that's not what inertia means...
Why not?
Objects at rest will stay at rest.
No credit for partial answers. The second half of that law is - objects in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.
Inertia exists in both motion and stillness. It is a state of matter that doesn't change. It just is. Saying "decades of inertia" means nothing.
We also ought to take a second stab at doing nuclear-powered merchant shipping to get rid of the incredibly polluting bunker oil cargo ships use. After all, NS Savannah's nuclear propulsion worked just fine; it only "failed" because of its weird, uneconomic half cargo/half passenger layout and anti-nuclear paranoia getting it banned from ports.
I feel like fusion will be scalable before a new nuclear plant in the US sends a single kWh into the grid.
I mean we just opened a new nuclear plant here in Georgia.
Lets see if the tech is still relevant in 20 years once its ready. Other energy sources are getting cheaper, as well as storages. And nuclear power is slow due to high safety requirements.
Maybe I am wrong and they don't need 20 years to build a nuclear power plant and I would celebrate this as a win for the planet – but I highly doubt nuclear will play any significant role in the transition to green energy.
It is just too reliable, can be put almost anywhere, and takes up so little space. It is routine for a reactor to hit over 50 years of continuous operation only hydro can brag about that and it is very limited in where it can go.
Nuclear power is part of the solution not even the majority as far as I am concerned but it is there. The numbers I have seen are 23% of global emissions comes from hydro-carbon power plants and 24% from industrial which also includes the local power they generate. With nuclear we could eliminate a lot of the problem in only a few years.
Nuclear is still the best we have to provide green energy that can meet the rising energy demands worldwide. At least until fusion tech is figured out, but that's more like 50 years.
The DoE just approved the first new reactor designs to be approved in decades, so while the permitting and construction will take a while, there will be new plants coming online. Six are already approved.
https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/large-lwr/col/new-reactor-map.html