U.S. Plan for Nuclear Unclear

The Obama administration is a clear supporter of nuclear power, viewing it as an important mix in our low carbon energy future. With Illinois home to 11 nuclear facilities (map), perhaps its no surprise that President Obama values nuclear power's future. Some have argued that the recent decision to allow more off-shore drilling is a bargaining piece for other energy and climate plans - including nuclear power. While this particular writer agrees that nuclear power has some endearing environmental attributes, the debate is still out.

IEE's own senior researchers, Peter Bradford and Mark Cooper, have conflicting views on the matter. You can find Cooper's article on IEE's web page, discussing the economic externalities of nuclear power as compared to other alternatives - concluding in part that the costs are too high to consider building nuclear now.

Even for those who believe the future of nuclear power is bright, it is clear that problems still persist. At least one company, Entergy, has recently experienced significant faults in their safety and environmental track records. If you follow the blog, you are familiar with the recent developments of the Vermont Yankee facility (see archived articles). Now, New York State has ruled that Entergy's cooling tower at Indian Point violates the Clean Water Act. (NYT) While Entergy in particular seems to have a poor track record, its worth noting that these plants are aging facilities.

Yet even if the new generation of plants are built to higher safety standards, the industry still faces the pesky problem of where to put nuclear waste. President Obama campaigned on ending Yucca Mountain, and the Energy Department is looking to withdraw its application to operate the Yucca repository. This caused 16 utilities to sue the Energy Department, seeking an end to waste disposal fees since there is no national disposal plan. (NYT) For now, many facilities are using dry cask storage on site.

This Friday, Dartmouth is hosting a "Great Issues in Energy" symposium, the topic of which is "The Nuclear Option." Speakers Dr. Alex Glaser, Dr. Joseph Romm and Dr. Ernest Moniz will present. I'll report back to see how they answer some of our pressing questions.