A new era for nuclear power?

Tribune News Service - For decades, the U.S. nuclear power industry has stood at a virtual standstill, a victim of economics and fears over safety. But as President Barack Obama prepares to issue new carbon-emission regulations targeting the power industry, nuclear companies are hoping a new era is upon them.

With high-profile advocates like former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christie Whitman on board, the industry is embarking on a very public campaign arguing nuclear must be part of any national energy plan. To accomplish that, it wants to examine amending power and licensing regulations to encourage nuclear and speed up construction.

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Exelon Statement on Illinois Nuclear Power Plant Report

CHICAGO, Jan 12, 2015 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Exelon today issued the following statement on the State of Illinois report on potential nuclear power plant closings prepared in response to House Resolution 1146:

We thank the state for its attention and work on such an important issue for Illinois and the future of the state’s energy assets. The report confirms that the state’s six nuclear power plants provide substantial economic and environmental benefits to Illinois residents and businesses. It also highlights the negative impacts closing one or more of the state’s nuclear facilities prematurely would have on Illinois’ economy, energy prices and carbon emissions, and concerns it would raise about the reliability of the electric grid. The report makes clear that the future of Illinois’ nuclear power plants should be an issue of statewide concern.

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Emission-free nuclear industry blasts EPA plan

Washington Examiner - By Zack Colman
 
The nuclear power industry says it’s getting a raw deal under President Obama’s proposal to limit carbon emissions from power plants.

States and energy utilities say the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan would penalize nuclear energy generation, which produces no greenhouse gases. The contentious issue has emerged prominently during the comment period that began after the rule was proposed in June.
The rule is intended to produce a 30 percent cut in power-sector emissions below 2005 levels by 2030, but industry has two big concerns.

One is an EPA policy designed as an incentive for states to keep operating reactors “at risk” of shutting down because of market pressure or expensive safety upgrades. Industry officials say the incentive is not enough and won’t work as intended.

The other issue concerns five nuclear reactors that are under construction. When it wrote its emissions proposal, the EPA counted these projects, in Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, as completed. The states say this makes their emission targets difficult because they are not allowed to count these cleaner plants’ lower emissions toward their mandated cuts.

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Nuclear Power Saves Millions Of Lives

Nuclear power is often promoted as a low-carbon source that mitigates fossil fuel emissions and the resulting health damage and deaths caused by air pollution. But is it possible to provide estimates and actually quantify these effects?

A new paper from NASA’s Goddard Institute authored by Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen in the journal Environmental Science and Technology purports to do just that. Hansen is well known as one of the founders of modern global warming science. The authors come up with the striking figure of 1.8 million as the number of lives saved by replacing fossil fuel sources with nuclear.

They also estimate the saving of up to 7 million lives in the next four decades, along with substantial reductions in carbon emissions, were nuclear power to replace fossil fuel usage on a large scale. In addition the study finds that the proposed expansion of natural gas would not be as effective in saving lives and preventing carbon emissions. In general the paper provides optimistic reasons for the responsible and widespread use of nuclear technologies in the near future. It also drives home the point that nuclear energy has prevented many more deaths than what it has caused.

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