Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Three Mile Island & 53 new nukes worldwide


At Three Mile Island this past weekend it seems Exelon was too busy for five hours to notify the state about a radiation leak and Gov.Ed Rendell is making some appropriate noises in the form of a strongly worded letter.
Amid renewed criticism from Gov. Rendell for a five-hour delay in telling emergency officials of a weekend radiation incident.
Ventilation fans probably caused the release of a small amount of radiation inside one building on Saturday afternoon, Exelon officials said. They said that the ventilation system had since been modified and that the 150 workers stationed in the building had all returned to work.
"Things are back to normal," site vice president Bill Noll said yesterday.

Indeed-------No reason this all won’t work out for the best, right ?
Meanwhile The Washington Post explores the new positive attitude environmentalists worldwide have toward new nukes as part of a well rounded clean energy strategy. Obama is prepared to prop-up a whole new generation of nuclear power plants with new tax dollars and incentives.
The Obama administration and leading Democrats, in an effort to win greater support for climate change legislation, are eyeing federal tax incentives and loan guarantees to fund a new crop of nuclear power plants across the United States that could eventually help drive down carbon emissions.
From China to Brazil, 53 plants are now under construction worldwide, with Poland, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia seeking to build their first reactors, according to global watchdog groups and industry associations. The number of plants being built is double the total of just five years ago.

An industry expert does not see the lack of long term storage as a problem and claims traditional business factors will determine nuclear industry plans . Says Steven Kraft the Nuclear Energy Institute group’s senior director for used fuel management in an interview this past Fall “Whether or not you build new nuclear plants in this country will be determined by traditional business factors,” he says. “We have to have a plan to deal with spent fuel, but we do not see it as an impediment.”

1 comment:

  1. I'm really curious about their "plan," to deal with spent fuel. Why do I get the sinking feeling that it's a three step plan involving 1) radioactive waste 2) burying it and 3) the Yucca Flats.

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