link By SIOBHAN HUGHES And STEVEN POWER WASHINGTONThe Obama administration is planning to propose tripling a program that provides loan guarantees to construct nuclear reactors, an administration official said Friday, reaching out to Republican lawmakers in an effort to break a logjam over energy policy.
The administration will seek loan guarantees totaling about $54 billion, the official said. That is up from the $18.5 billion currently available. The details are expected to be unveiled Monday when the White House makes a fiscal 2011 budget request.
Funny how gov't changes commercial nuke policy and decided to go full speed with the AP1000. So why not try the mini fast reactor from Toshiba for small communities in Alaska ?
...or just plunk $150 billion into an account for accelerating dedicated nuclear plant construction, (that's good for what ten or fifteen large plants?) Build the pressure vessels, steam generators, condensors and control systems on an assembly line basis...
I agree the small, mini nuke plants are a good bet too. I also think that Hyperion Power, Inc. uranium hydride reactor technology is very intruiging. Dubbed an 'atomic battery' it is compact, modular, and pretty secure...
It's also fairly inexpensive:
http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/
-- Edited by GoogleNaut on Sunday 31st of January 2010 03:37:39 PM
I would rather use the $150 B on fast neutron reactors providing 80-100% burn-up as a final back end of recycling fuel treatment and on the following:
At the front end I would still use pyroprocessing and UREX+1 since you can sell this processed nuke fuel to burn in relatively inexpensive modular reactors worldwide. The fuel here is weapons proliferation resistant it would take huge $$ to weaponize this fuel. Even MOXing 'hot rad' fuel should be burned in alternate designed reactors.
This isn't meant to discredit n. American nuclear industry. In the United States and Canada, this used fuel is stored, while in countries such as the Russia, United Kingdom, France, Japan and India the fuel is reprocessed to remove the fission products, and the fuel can then be re-used. N. Am. emphasis is on mine-burn-bury uranium.
In the long run you provide efficent nuke services and products and a healthy nuke industry worldwide.
PS. on the mini reactor I would go with Thorium hydride
Since Obama believes in AGW his policies untimately will have move in the direction of nuclear energy. You just can't power the whole country with solar and wind.