The nuclear power industry has been dead for 30 years, in terms of government approval for new construction. But in a surprising move, President Obama spoke out in support of building new nuclear power plants during his State of the Union Address on Wednesday, signaling his administration plans to oversee a nuclear rebirth.
“To create more of these clean energy jobs we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. That means building a new generation of safe clean nuclear power plants in this country,” Obama said on Wednesday.
And in a move proving his commitment to bolstering the nuclear power industry, Obama’s budget provides loan guarantees for up to 10 new power plants tripling the amount last year from $18.5 billion to $54 billion.
Once hostage to fears of another Three Mile Island, a majority of Americans now support nuclear power, according to polls.
“Members of both parties are insisting that nuclear has to be included because they recognize the reality of how difficult it is to produce enough electricity in this county without nuclear,” said Alex Flint, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for Nuclear Energy Institute.
Construction is already underway on two new plants in Georgia expected to go online in 2016. Thirty more plants are in the permit process. At peak production levels, each $8 billion plant would employ about 2,000 workers.
But the key to more nuclear power in the United States, according to Flint, is climate change. “It is now impossible to pass climate change legislation without including nuclear energy,” Flint told Fox News.
Safety and security remain a concern but the biggest roadblock to the industry’s revival is what to do with spent fuel rods. With the closure of Yucca Mountain, there is nowhere to permanently store nuclear waste.
For some environmentalists, that’s a deal-breaker. Ben Schreiber from Friends of The Earth said,”It’s just an unsafe inefficient costly technology and we are definitely not ready to concede that these plants will be built here in the U.S.”
On Friday the president appointed a bipartisan panel to recommend an alternative to Yucca Mountain and how waste can be stored safely at existing reactors. While there is growing support for nuclear energy among Democrats, especially those in the South where the first six plants will be built, some wonder if the President is using it as a bargaining chip – to win Republican votes for a climate change legislation. However, others see his support as recognition that the nuclear option provides the cleanest, most dependable source of electricity, operating 90% of the time, compared to 30 percent to 40 percent for wind and solar.