Tri-City Herald: More nukes look likely

Politico reports some great news for those of us who favor expansion of nuclear power to help attain energy independence and reduce carbon emissions:

Steven Chu said on Tuesday that he would push as the new energy secretary to help the nuclear energy and clean coal industries jump-start their contributions to battle the nation’s energy crisis.

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during his confirmation hearing that he’d help streamline nuclear loan guarantees that would help the industry construct several new plants to produce low-emission energy and would push the Energy Department to examine options for recycling nuclear waste.

“I’m supportive of the fact that the nuclear industry should have to be part of energy mix in this century,” Chu said. “And recycling [nuclear waste] in the long term can be part of the solution.”

If confirmed by the Senate, the 60-year-old director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory would face the daunting task of moving the country forward on renewable energy, tackling global warming and overseeing the nation’s nuclear arsenal, senators cautioned.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17391.html

From Washington State's Mid-Columbia Tri-City Herald:

More nukes look likely
By E. Kirsten Peters, Special to the Herald
Wednesday, January 14

PULLMAN -- President-elect Obama's pick for Secretary of Energy is a
physicist with a Nobel Prize.

Dr. Steven Chu also has a long record of advocating more nuclear
power, as well as increasing our use of renewable energy such as next-
generation solar.

In short, Chu looks likely to move our nation a step away from heavy
reliance on fossil fuels and toward a more high-tech energy future.

Chu's nuclear commitment will likely be fodder for glow-in-the-dark
jokes from Leno and Letterman. But his ideas challenge all of us to
seriously look again at our energy priorities.

Today, we get about 20 percent of our electricity from nuclear
reactors, making them a significant slice of the national energy pie.
But some citizens strongly fear high-tech nuclear plants. Others
worry about nuclear waste and note that our government has not yet
provided a full disposal path for spent nuclear fuel.

On the other hand, some citizens see nukes as an energy source that's
based on American resources. And nuclear plants don't contribute to
carbon dioxide levels, a clear positive for climate concerns.

Many scientists see great potential for reducing the hazardous waste
from nuclear power plants by recycling the fuel rods that lie at the
heart of reactors. The stumbling block for such recycling in this
country has not been a technical one, but a political issue -- which
brings us back to the new administration.

Obama's pick for Energy Secretary is the director of the prestigious
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Dr. Chu has long spoken in favor of
increasing the number of nuclear power plants and improving what we
do within those plants to radically decrease nuclear waste.

Just for the record, I'm a geologist who wears a Stetson and drives
an aging pickup truck. Because I'm such a red-blooded American, I
feel free to say we might possibly learn something from the example
of the French, at least when it comes to energy.

France gets a whopping 88 percent of its electrical power from nukes.
With limited fossil fuels given to them by Mother Nature, the French
long ago made the decision to embrace nuclear power. And embrace it
they have: many French citizens line up to tour nuclear plants on
their summer vacations!

With 59 nuclear plants in operation, France chose not to store
immense volumes of waste deep underground, as the American government
proposes to do at Yucca Mountain. Instead, the French recycle old
fuel rods to generate still more power and reduce their waste pile.
The residual amount of radioactive material is vastly reduced, and is
much easier to store.

Recycling was an approach the Carter administration nixed for America
in the 1970s, citing security concerns. But the French have had no
security issues with their recycling program. That's why I expect Dr.
Chu will advocate both recycling and new nuclear power plants after
he's confirmed as Energy Secretary.

Congress no doubt will consider energy from several vantage points,
weighing our national needs and the diverse opinions of so many
citizens.

One thing is sure -- part of any broad American effort to build
recycling facilities and construct next-generation nukes would depend
on recreating the human infrastructure we've lost since the 1970s. In
other words, if we choose to keep our cowboy hats firmly on our heads
(as I'm surely going to do), but also make use of more nuclear power,
we've got to support education in nuclear science and engineering.

A friend, Dr. Donald Wall of Washington State University, works each
day in exactly that field, educating the next generation in
everything from running the nuclear reactor we have on campus for
research purposes to investigating new methods of using radioactive
materials to benefit humanity.

"Americans are very creative and industrious people, and I know we
have the talent to safely expand the nuclear energy industry," Wall
said to me this week. "I'm dedicated to this field because it holds
incredible promise. We're excited to start working with the new
Secretary of Energy."

Leno and Letterman will write more jokes about glowing in the dark
with Homer Simpson. But scientists such as Chu and Wall are in
earnest about expanding the nuclear power industry in the U.S.

* E. Kirsten Peters is a native of the rural Northwest, but was
trained as a geologist at Princeton and Harvard.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1458/story/444837.html