The Obama administration will announce today a new major loan guarantee to aid in the construction of two new nuclear reactors within the next few years.The reactors, to be located in Georgia east of Atlanta, represent a major landmark in modern U.S. history: They are the first nuclear reactors to win government support in three decades.
The two reactors are estimated to create 3,500 jobs during the construction process and 800 jobs when completed. They are both slated to be completed by 2017.
The loan guarantee is part of a broader plan by the Obama administration to expand nuclear power generation in the United States. The Energy Department plans to make similar announcements in the future, and the administration has even asked Congress to triple funding for the nuclear loan guarantee program.
The move, however, will likely generate fierce opposition by environmental groups who oppose nuclear power.
One such group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, has already voiced concern over the Obama administration's priority on nuclear power.
"The president talks about raising loan guarantees substantially for the nuclear power industry," said Bob Deans of the NRDC. "We think that would be a mistake."
The administration has a mixed record on nuclear issues. Although they seek to expand nuclear generation, they also announced early in 2009 that they would cut funding for Yucca Mountain, the nuclear waste storage facility that was supposed to be completed more than ten years ago. In the 1980s the government negotiated contracts with utilities that included the availability of a storage site for nuclear waste by 1998.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu has completely written off Yucca as a potential site, however. "Both the President and I have made clear that Yucca Mountain is not an option," Chu said.
That decision will guarantee further defaults on contracts to nuclear utilities, which means more lawsuits against the federal government.
To date, the government has paid over $1 billion to utilities for failing to complete an adequate storage facility, and that trend will continue for at least another two years, when a specially-appointed task force will report back after studying alternatives to Yucca Mountain.
Nuclear power, which currently provides 20% of the electricity in the United States, does not emit greenhouse gases and, unlike other zero-emission technologies such as wind and solar, can provide a reliable and substantial amount of baseload power.
I live in Georgia and I have been paying extra on my electric bill to build these reactors. The Georgia legeislature voted on this almost 2 years ago. I want to know if it will be Georgia workers getting the jobs or will it be union members ? Where will the electricty go now that the government is sticking its nose in? I don't want to pay extra if the union workers build the plants or if the government will dictate where the electricity goes ! As a Georgian who's paying my share of this... WE SHOULD HAVE A SAY IN THESE DECISIONS!
When I see Jeffrey Immelt ally GE with European organizations and interests, I wonder how wrong America has fallen into disloyalties. Anyone who visits the large wind turbine fields gets a sense of just how wrong things can be. These enormous tracts of land become unusable for any shared purposes. They are hazardous to traverse on foot. Flight patterns of Americas birds are permanantly disrupted and many birds habitats and the birds themselves are destroyed continuously until they are gone. And the Nuclear plants...? Are we really going to poison our future generations with this waste?
America has a better solution at hand. Instead of sending a billion dollars a year for each turbine field to European companies and special interests to build and support the wind turbine concepts, build truly American megoliths with millions of American workers, scientists, engineers, and laborers.
The Wichita Wind Dam Rendition could be the first of these megolithic power generation stations. Imagine driving along highway 96 on the edge of Wichita, Kansas. Before you realize it, the highway has risen 120 feet. Large Douglas Fir and pines 80-100 feet high line the highway. You look out across the landscape. It's pristine and seemingly undisturbed; almost like a national forest preserve.
You have travelled along highway 96 to the peak of the Wichita Wind Dam. This megolithic structure is 12.7 miles wide and conforms to the existing roadway. The project will take approximately eight to twelve years and employ nearly a million American workers and heavily subsidize the local business economies.
The Wind Dam will generate five to nine times the electrical power generated by Americas largest nuclear plant. It will produce zero emmissions and no nuclear waste to dispose of. The ionizers on the intake structures will actually cleanse air in the immediate area on a geoligic scale.
The scale of the structure is so large as to provide civil defense shelter for the Kansas National Guard and fallout shelter for the population of Wichita.
In eight to twelve years, Wichita Kansas could be producing the worlds least expensive steel. India and China would be lining up to buy American steel once again. The trade balance with China would invert in a matter of years. This is American. This is the American solution. Electrical energy so cost effective and clean that Americans will be putting their electric payments back in their pockets. Remember the great hydroelectric projects and the effect on the country. We can do this for our grandkids. We could employ three and a half million Americans for the next ten to twelve years and produce something monumental for our posterity. We can do this!
When I see Jeffrey Immelt ally GE with European organizations and interests, I wonder how wrong America has fallen into disloyalties. Anyone who visits the large wind turbine fields gets a sense of just how wrong things can be. These enormous tracts of land become unusable for any shared purposes. They are hazardous to traverse on foot. Flight patterns of Americas birds are permanantly disrupted and many birds habitats and the birds themselves are destroyed continuously until they are gone. And the Nuclear plants...? Are we really going to poison our future generations with this waste?
America has a better solution at hand. Instead of sending a billion dollars a year for each turbine field to European companies and special interests to build and support the wind turbine concepts, build truly American megoliths with millions of American workers, scientists, engineers, and laborers.
The Wichita Wind Dam Rendition could be the first of these megolithic power generation stations. Imagine driving along highway 96 on the edge of Wichita, Kansas. Before you realize it, the highway has risen 120 feet. Large Douglas Fir and pines 80-100 feet high line the highway. You look out across the landscape. It's pristine and seemingly undisturbed; almost like a national forest preserve.
You have travelled along highway 96 to the peak of the Wichita Wind Dam. This megolithic structure is 12.7 miles wide and conforms to the existing roadway. The project will take approximately eight to twelve years and employ nearly a million American workers and heavily subsidize the local business economies.
The Wind Dam will generate five to nine times the electrical power generated by Americas largest nuclear plant. It will produce zero emmissions and no nuclear waste to dispose of. The ionizers on the intake structures will actually cleanse air in the immediate area on a geoligic scale.
The scale of the structure is so large as to provide civil defense shelter for the Kansas National Guard and fallout shelter for the population of Wichita.
In eight to twelve years, Wichita Kansas could be producing the worlds least expensive steel. India and China would be lining up to buy American steel once again. The trade balance with China would invert in a matter of years. This is American. This is the American solution. Electrical energy so cost effective and clean that Americans will be putting their electric payments back in their pockets. Remember the great hydroelectric projects and the effect on the country. We can do this for our grandkids. We could employ three and a half million Americans for the next ten to twelve years and produce something monumental for our posterity. We can do this!
We really need to focus on other alternatives like nuclear, which generate significant jobs, taxes and direct as well as secondary spending that strengthens the economies of communities and states. We need significant amount of additional clean and affordable electricity to meet the demand of a growing economy.
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Alternative shmalternative, we have more than enough energy within the borders of these united States to handle our energy needs. The EPA and all forms of the progressive environmental networks from green Peace to the Sierra Club et. al. have hamstrung our initiatives in tapping oil in the arctic and off of our shores, natural gas and coal.
Wind power and other green initiatives have virtually bankrupted Spain spinning its unemployment beyond 18%
Solar energy is a manifest disaster. A case in point is Rancho Seco in California where the nuclear power created amounted to 96 mega watts whereas when it was transformed to solar generated only 4 mega watts.
To bundle green energy with our fossil fuel, nuclear, and hydro electric would be like bundling jet passenger service with glider service. Lets see now, 80% of the air traveling public will go by jet and 20% will take a glider. Rubbish!!