Steve W. wrote:
Wes wrote:
Larry Jaques wrote:

Due to the timing, I was wondering "Is this the Left's reply to the
skeptics' bringing out the CO2 scandals and ruining their Globular
Swarming scam?" but it appears to be real. I can't help but wonder
if they would have caught it far earlier if the Greenies hadn't
nearly forced nukes out of existence.

I have a feeling that there is a lot of pressure to keep running old
nuke plants due to the lack of new ones coming on line.

Wes
--
"Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect
government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home
in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

That is one of the reasons. Westinghouse has a nice design in a new
unit. The problem is that the left has demonized nukes for so long and
made it damn near impossible to build new ones that they have to wring
the guts out of the existing units.

"Most of these were built by regulated utilities, often state-based, which
meant that they put the capital cost (whatever it turned out to be after,
for example, delays) into their rate base and amortised it against power
sales. Their consumers bore the risk and paid the capital cost. (With
electricity deregulation in some states, the shareholders bear any risk of
capital overruns and power is sold into competitive markets.)"




Now if some of the fools out there would repeal the ban on
reprocessing fuel that Carter signed and get a few new plants started
the energy problems (as far as electricity) would be taken care of in
many areas, and be far cleaner than ANY other generation technology
to boot.

Reprocess a lot of the current waste fuel in this country and the
price of operation would drop considerably. By the time you actually
processed it down to true waste the remainder from one reactor the
end waste would fit into a 55 gallon drum and have less radiation
than ambient background.

I love the folks who point out past spills and accidents as if they
are based on current designs. Considering that the newest plant
operating in the US is running a design that is almost 40 years old.
(Watts Bar 1- Came on line in 1996 but construction began in 1973!!!)

"Almost all the US nuclear generating capacity comes from reactors built
between 1967 and 1990. There have been no new construction starts since
1977, largely because for a number of years gas generation was considered
more economically attractive and because construction schedules were
frequently extended by opposition, compounded by heightened safety fears
following the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. A further PWR - Watts Bar
2 - is expected to start up by 2013 following Tennessee Valley Authority's
decision in 2007 to complete the construction of the unit. "

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf41.html

--
John R. Carroll