Posted on 10/08/2014 2:01:33 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
“On another topic on this thread, I am pretty stoked about nuclear energy development - perhaps the only bright energy note of the Obama Administration.”
Are they actually considering commissioning more plants?
The rogue EPA along with NERC/FERC are doing all it can to make sure gas turbine plants can’t be profitable. Would nuclear plants be exempt?
Are they actually considering commissioning more plants?
Some new reactors, but no new plants.
This from Wikipedia:
“There has been no ground-breaking on new nuclear plants in the United States since 1974. Up until 2013, there had also been no ground-breaking on new nuclear reactors at existing power plants since 1977. Then in 2012, the NRC approved construction of four new reactors at existing nuclear plants. Construction of the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station Units 2 and 3 began on March 9, 2013. A few days later, on March 12, construction began on the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 3 and 4. In addition, TVA’s new reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station is at an advanced stage, after construction was resumed after being halted in 1988.”
Although approved during the Obama Administration, they are the fruit of promotion by the Bush Administration from 2002 through their Nuclear Power 2010 Program, and the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
On the flip side, a few have been decommissioned, or are being considered.
From Wikipedia:
“In 2013, four aging reactors were permanently closed before their licenses expired because of high maintenance and repair costs at a time when natural gas prices have fallen: San Onofre 2 and 3 in California, Crystal River 3 in Florida, and Kewaunee in Wisconsin.[9][10] The state of Vermont is trying to close Vermont Yankee, in Vernon. New York State is seeking to close Indian Point in Buchanan, 30 miles from New York City.”
Additionally, several proposed projects were cancelled after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, and the boom in natural gas has made nuclear less attractive.
So it is not a boom in nuclear energy, but at least the log jam is broken.
Sometimes we get excited over discussing some promising technology like thorium designs or such.
“The biggest mistake,by far,that the world’s industrialized nations have made in the last 30 years was to open their markets to Chinese made goods...thus allowing it to become an economic (and military) power.”
DING DING! We have a winner! The rise of China is Nixon’s fault, the worst thing he did besides Watergate. Mao had succeeded in bringing China into a state of Lord-of-The-Flies-Anarchy, then Nixon stupidly pulled them out of it.
Very informative post, thanks.
“Obummer has met his objective, we are no longer “exceptional”.”
Even if China HAS surpassed America economically, they will NEVER be more “exceptional” than AMERICA. They do not recognize the things that makes a country “exceptional”, EXCEPT, when their dictator says they do. A country cannot be communist AND be “exceptional”. So, all it means now is, they have more money to make even more “junk” to spread around the planet.
To bring it back to the thread topic, the reactors that were approved were the new Westinghouse AP1000 design.
Earlier in the Obama Administration (2006), they approved the sale of this design to the Chinese, so they could get into the business of commercial reactor building (in case they want to proliferate more efficiently, for example).
The Chinese were behind on building theirs and did not a good supply chain for components, so DOE approved the AP1000 for the US, and established a deal where China will provide components for the American reactors, getting the volume (and all the technical assistance) they might need.
It reminds me of how the Clinton Administration spent years mentoring the Chinese military modernization, dismantling armament production lines from US arsenals and setting them back up in China, sending Lockheed to correct the technical problems they had with their missile launches and so on. If I did it, it would be treason, when they do it, it’s policy.
“Japan’s population is shrinking,”
Americas population is being polluted.
And on the verge of shrinking. At this point, we actually depend on immigration to not have a shrinking population.
It was inevitable, given that China is incorporating capitalism while the USofA is incorporating communism.
Yap, all done for illegal campaign contributions!
China has kept the illusion of growth by relentless building of new malls, high rise aptmts, entire new cities. That bubble is dangerous. However going into debt for welfare as US has done is much worse. At least China has something to show for money spent. What has to show except debt.
Taking on debt for consumption never ends well.
Emotionally I agree with you. I just feel that obummer has intentionally surrendered our world leadership position. That in itself removes us from the exceptional list. We are leading from behind.
China and India had the largest economies in the world for over thousand years in the past. Their rise again was inevitable. Nixon did give China a push, that is true. India received no such push and Indian economy is now ten folds bigger since independence from British in 1947.
The advantage these two countries have is enormous populations with history of education going back many centuries.
You are correct, the great bulk of the debt that the US Government has accumulated, was spent on things for which we have nothing to show. Food that was eaten, medical care that was provided, etc. There is a zero percent repayment rate from such “investments”, unless you assign some value to votes for the Democrat Party.
Two thirds of the Federal Government’s budget is such transfer payments (mostly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid). Spending on these programs has exploded since they were instituted - more than a hundred-fold over my lifetime.
The amount spent on just those programs exceeds total revenue - the Federal Government is borrowing about fifty cents of every dollar spent, and there has been large growth in borrowing from the Federal Reserve (which just prints more money) to maintain this level of over-spending, as the rest of the world combined will not loan enough. We have unique advantages in our ability to run up debt by printing, because the dollar is the world’s reserve currency. That does not prevent collapse, it just pushes the breaking point further to the extreme.
Math will have its day.
Nixon and his successors are far from entirely to blame.I said "industrialized nations".If both Europe and Japan had closed their markets to China while we opened ours her growth wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic as it's been.
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