New Energy Act: not great for nuclear!

From the Nuclear Energy Institute blog:  

"One of the topics NEI pays close attention to, of course, is the role EIA sees nuclear power playing over the next several decades. According to the report, by 2030, 20 GW of new nuclear capacity are projected to be built as well as 2.7 GW in uprates and 4.5 GW in retirements. Total nuclear capacity in 2030 is projected to increase to 118.8 GW from today's 100.3 GW. This year's nuclear projection is a step up from last year's report which forecasted nuclear will only increase to 112.6 GW by 2030."

"20 GW" of new nukes by 2030! Folks, the U.S. is in a very bad situation. I always emphasize the positive (like "20 more than we have now!!!!! Take THAT Wasserman/Calidcott!) but, this actually means falling behind in terms of a pure % of nuclear in the generation mix and does not a thing to slow down the growth of fossil (and everything evil that comes from this).  While design paradigms from the French are all well and good (and will keep us even safer & save us all money in the future) US private energy corporations are acting in the opposite way the French did (and most nations developing nuclear do now, like China) in terms of planning a term synonymous to syphilis to most private energy companies or any capitalist for that matter.

While design paradigms from the French are all well and good (and will keep us even safer & save us all money in the future) US private energy corporations are acting in the opposite way the French did (and most nations developing nuclear do now, like China) in terms of planning a term synonymous to syphilis to most private energy companies or any capitalist for that matter.

Planning is what it is going to take, a true Manhattan Project-like national goal that subordinates the private interests ("greed") of the utilities to the needs to society that dictate the massive building, by a factor of 5, of the predictions the the EIA believes the number on new NPPs will be by the willy-nilly whims of investor owned utilities. They have to get F'ing serious. This US "renaissance" is more like a fly-by-night West Village art show than the unveiling of Guernica at the Prado in Spain. Don't misunderstand, I'm all for it. But has to server our interests first, not stock holders and Board of Directors.

The "National Energy Act" of 2007 is simply a set of goals, some financial incentives for this or that energy project. The milage aspects are concrete and hopefully, will reduce fossil use in cars (we can only hope) and other transportation. Maybe. Even the "Loan Guarantees", something that you'd think the free enterprised "free entry, free exit into the market place" Boards of Directors would shun out of ideology really do nothing in terms of setting free human creativity in terms of developing the right kind of reactors, the massive numbers we need, etc. From a nuclear activist point of view, this is the ultimate "wussey" deal since it does so little to enhance our use of fission vs that of fossil.

David Walters