The return of the one industry able to provide clean and unlimited power is indeed great news.
Nuclear power industry reasserts itself after 3-decade lull
By David Whitney - dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, March 16, 2008
WASHINGTON – Stoked by new federal subsidies and worries over global warming, the nuclear power industry is beginning to glow brightly once again.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received seven applications for new power plants last year and is expecting a dozen more by the end of December. The applications, combined, will cover a total of 22 reactors since more than one is proposed at some sites, spokesman Scott Burnell said.
"Nobody had started the applications process for 30 years until last year," Burnell said.
Even in California, where state law bars new plants from being constructed until a permanent repository opens to hold the highly radioactive spent fuel, business is picking up.
Westinghouse Electric Co., a Pittsburgh-based Toshiba Group Co. subsidiary, announced this month that it is opening a San Jose office "to support the growth of its boiling water reactor nuclear power business."
Some are even beginning to plan ways around the state's 1976 moratorium, which has effectively capped the number of operating reactors at four – two at San Onofre in San Diego County and two at Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo.
Former labor union leader John Hutson is head of the fledgling Fresno Nuclear Energy Group, which wants to build a 1,600-megawatt power reactor on 80 acres of city land, using effluent from a wastewater treatment plant for cooling.
