Posted on 01/16/2014 3:33:09 AM PST by don-o
WASHINGTON — A cryptic reference turns up on Page 399 of a six-inch-thick piece of legislation that congressional appropriators unveiled Monday night, calling for an extra $155 million worth of financing for the Department of Energy to promote its nuclear projects.
This is the same program — helping for-profit companies build a new generation of small nuclear reactors — that has been called a boondoggle by some spending watchdog groups. But lawmakers, including Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, pressed by industry lobbyists, opted to increase the program’s budget by 21 percent above the Obama administration’s request.
“I’m very pleased with that development,” said Mr. Alexander, adding that he met with one of the main beneficiaries, the Babcock & Wilcox Company, two months ago and was assured that the program was “on schedule and on budget.” The first two nuclear reactors are being built in Oak Ridge, Tenn. — 30 minutes from the senator’s hometown.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
These plants will be obsolete while on the drawing board. Who in the world wants nuclear energy when natural gas is the abundant energy of power generation at a fraction of the cost?
Better Lamar than me living 38 miles from two nuclear reactors, though.
Tennessee has a very large nuclear capability within Babcox and Wilcox and TVA.
the revival of nuclear power with smaller reactors will be beneficial and when compared with the folly of wind power and solar collectors will have a payoff rather than a rat hole cost.
The anti nuc crowd killed the business by forcing endless trivial changes that accomplished nothing except costing money.
Any single source of energy is a bad idea. Prices and supply fluctuate.
Truth is coal is excellent as far as in ground supply but just like nuclear it has fallen out of political favor.
Nuclear energy is hardly obsolete, but our nuke plant designs are.
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