Nuclear industry will move forward, but not significantly

Radioinactive

The much-heralded revival of the U.S. nuclear industry is moving at a less-than-explosive pace (ha ha!). The slow growth isn't for lack of trying by the Bush administration, whose 2005 energy bill juices the industry with tax credits, insurance, loan guarantees, a ceiling on accident liability damages, and for all we know, free lollipops. For utility executives, though, the decision about whether to move forward with new plants is purely about reward versus financial risk -- not, say, questions of safety and environmental impact -- and neither risks nor rewards are clear. PPL Corp. runs two nuclear reactors, but chair William Hecht has declined to seek more, deciding that shareholder profit would be maximized by cleaning up PPL's coal-fired plants. In contrast, delightfully named Constellation Energy CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III believes his company "can continue to do well in nuclear." Nuclear power supplies less than 20 percent of U.S. electricity; more than 100 senior utility executives surveyed recently do not expect that number to rise.

straight to the source: The New York Times, Matthew L. Wald, 22 Aug 2006

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Comments: (4 comments)

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Radioactive Material Girl

Good news! Madonna just solved the world's nuclear waste problem. What's the solution you ask? Magical Kabbalah fluid.

Check it out.

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by Matt Painter at 1:09 PM on 22 Aug 2006

Yucca Mountain

Until our government figures out what to do with all the existing waste (the current plan is Yucca Mountain here in Nevada, 90 miles outside Las Vegas, which the majority of us in Las Vegas oppose), this industry will continue to be stalled in its 20-year efforts to revive nuclear power.

Is there life in Las Vegas? Find out at http://vegas-girl.blogspot.com/

by thmeeks at 2:56 PM on 22 Aug 2006

Power "Lost Wages" with waste?

Why not power Las Vegas' wastefully lighted gambling resorts with nuclear waste? Let the nuclear industry build waste processing nukes at Yucca to prove itself safe and cost effective. Run big power lines into the city.

Use the waste heat to recycle the water wasted in the resort hotel fountains, pools, golf courses, and hotel rooms; and desalinate sea water instead of diverting and destroying rivers and groundwater for the monopoly capitalist corporate bottom lines.

It's a wasteful city, power it with waste. If any contamination happens the corporations and their political shills can cover it up. Leaving participation in the mess by the rest of US completely voluntary.

Eventually natural selection will produce a Las Vegan strain of humanity resistant to radiation? A modern day radioactive sodom/ghomoran petri dish for evolution ("whatever happens here stays here").

If those living elsewhere want to lose the family farm and get contaminated, have at it! Freedom of choice, hehey.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 8:05 AM on 23 Aug 2006

Water Wasting

The vast majority of wasted water in the West, including Las Vegas, has far less to do with the wastefulness of casinos (though there's no denying they're wasteful) and much more to do with desert land irrigated with all that precious diverted water mentioned by amazingdrx -- land that never was suited to growing crops. Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner gives a great history of the area, including the desecration of the Owens Valley in California.

Gamblers in the casinos have stood waist-deep in flood waters and ignored fire alarms as smoke filled the air, so you're probably right that Las Vegas could be glowing with radiation and they'd still show up. Of course nowadways casinos aren't really all that hard to find in any state.

Is there life in Las Vegas? Find out at http://vegas-girl.blogspot.com/

by thmeeks at 12:43 AM on 24 Aug 2006
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