nuclear power

["Thomas J Savin " <tjsav@LYCOS.COM>]

I thought thius would be of interest - Enjoy!



Tom



 

Senate Bill Offers Boost to Nuclear Power



By Cat Lazaroff



WASHINGTON, DC, March 13, 2001 (ENS) - U.S. Senator Pete Domenici has introduced a bill promoting nuclear power as the best solution for a host of problems, ranging from energy shortages to global warming. But environmental groups and nuclear watchdog groups say that nuclear energy is still a risky proposition - far more so than renewable alternatives such as solar power. 





Senator Pete Domenici introduced a bill to promote nuclear energy (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator)

The Nuclear Energy Electricity Assurance Act of Nuclear Energy Electricity Assurance Act of 2001 (S 472), which has bipartisan support, contains a comprehensive set of provisions aimed at fostering greater use of nuclear energy while supporting advanced research into technologies to minimize radioactive wastes. 

"As a nation, we cannot afford to lose the nuclear energy option until we are ready to specify with confidence how we are going to replace 22 percent of our electricity with some other source offering comparable safety, reliability, low cost and environmental attributes," Domenici said in introducing the bill last week. "We risk our nation's future prosperity if we lose the nuclear option through inaction. Instead, we need concrete action to secure the nuclear option for future generations. We must not subject the nation to the risk of inadequate energy supplies." 



The bill includes five major components to support nuclear energy production, encourage new plant construction, remove barriers to nuclear power plant licensing, create waste disposal solutions, and alter some Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations. 



The legislation authorizes $406 million for these initiatives, including $120 million for the advanced accelerator applications (AAA) program aimed at reprocessing spent fuel to tap its residual energy. Currently, the federal government allocates $131 million for these programs, including $68 million for AAA and tritium programs. 





Davis Bessie nuclear power plant Unit 1 is located 21 mile east-southeast of Toledo, Ohio. Nuclear plants emit no greenhouse gases (Four photos courtesy Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

The nation's 103 nuclear reactors provide about 22 percent of the nation's electricity. The operating costs of nuclear energy are among the lowest of any source, Domenici said. 

The Utility Data Institute recently reported production costs for nuclear energy at 1.83 cents per kilowatt-hour, with coal second at 2.08 cents per kilowatt hour. 



Domenici noted that nuclear energy is "essentially emission free," avoiding the emission of 167 million tons of carbon last year or more than two billion tons since the 1970's, compared to other energy sources. In 1999, nuclear power plants provided about half of the total carbon reductions achieved by U.S. industries under the federal voluntary reporting program. 



"Despite contributions to the nation's environmental health and a solid safety record, the United States has basically abandoned its leadership in the field of nuclear energy. We've erected so many regulatory hurdles that there hasn't been a single new nuclear power plant built in more than 20 years," Domenici said. 



Some environmental groups charge that nuclear energy and "clean energy" do not belong in the same sentence. The nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen says Domenici's bill simply provides the nuclear power industry a $100 million subsidy without answering questions about how to manage nuclear waste, power plant decommissioning and other problems. 





The Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history 

"Promoting nuclear power is risky because questions about its safety still abound and we still cannot guarantee safe storage of nuclear waste for the duration of its hazardous life," the group writes in a release. 

Public Citizen argues that Domenici's bill would subsidize the completion of unfinished reactors that have lain fallow for years and promote the development of reactor designs that lack containment structures to prevent the release of radiation into the environment and surrounding communities. 



"Senator Domenici's nuclear energy bill is yet another misguided attempt to subsidize this most dangerous and unforgiving technology," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "It is thoroughly irresponsible to promote the use of nuclear power when there is still no technically feasible means of assuring that long lived radioactive wastes can be isolated from the environment. Further, this will do nothing to solve the current predicament we have with rising electricity costs." 



The Domenici bill also would approve a shift from formal hearings - which give the public the right to obtain documents through discovery and to cross examine hearing participants - to informal hearings, in which the public can do neither. This would curtail the ability of citizens to participate in the licensing hearings on a proposed "high level" waste repository at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, and on safety issues at more than 100 U.S. nuclear reactors. 



"Senator Domenici wants to turn Americans into second class citizens by limiting our public hearing and participation rights," said James Riccio, senior analyst for Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "Shielding the nuclear industry from public scrutiny will further undermine confidence in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry. If the nuclear industry cannot withstand the rigors of formal hearings, their reactors and nuclear waste dumps should not be built." 





Steam rises from the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in the Arizona desert 

The Domenici bill would extend the Price Anderson Act, which indemnifies the nuclear industry against the financial consequences of a nuclear accident. The bill also would encourage the construction of more reactors while limiting the liability of the nuclear industry in the event of an accident. 

The bill would allow foreign corporations to own and operate nuclear reactors in the United States, while exercising limited controls over their operations. 



"I fail to see why the American taxpayer should indemnify foreign corporations whose nuclear reactors threaten the lives and livelihoods of American citizens," Hauter said. "Foreign and domestic corporations that expose the public to the risk of a nuclear disaster should be held financially accountable for their actions. Shielding nuclear corporations from the consequences of their actions will only result in more dangerous nuclear plants and waste dumps." 



The bill would create an Office of Spent Nuclear Fuel Research to promote technologies such as the reprocessing of radioactive waste, a controversial program estimated to cost $10 million in 2002 alone. 



"This does nothing to solve the nuclear waste problem but instead introduces a host of new environmental and safety problems," Hauter said. "It merely serves as a smokescreen to mask the problems that would be exacerbated by the increased reliance on nuclear power that this bill promotes." 





The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on the California coast has been plagued with security problems and blamed for environmental damage 

Hauter also objected to Domenici's assertion that increased use of nuclear power would alleviate the current energy shortage in western states. 

"By propping up a dangerous and failed technology, the legislation ignores proven alternatives such as wind, solar and energy conservation," Hauter said. "The massive subsidies and radioactive waste cleanup costs are so staggering that nuclear power will only increase already sky high wholesale electricity prices." 



Domenici counters that his bill supports just one aspect of a more comprehensive energy policy needed to provide secure power sources across the nation. 



"Nuclear energy is not the end all, be all of our energy needs," Domenici said. "In fact, there is no single silver bullet that will solve our nation's thirst for clean, reliable, reasonably priced energy sources. Nuclear energy is just one subset. Our job is to objectively weigh the risks and benefits of this energy source, and take action to tap into that power. I believe it is important to our long term economic and military strength." 



 



 



- ---

Tom Savin





Get 250 color business cards for FREE! at Lycos Mail

http://mail.lycos.com/freemail/vistaprint_index.html

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.



------------------------------