by Duggan Flanakin at Watts Up With That
With a strong push from the Trump White House, the nuclear energy industry in the U.S. is, for the first time since Three Mile Island, bullish about its future. It’s about time, given that the average existing U.S. nuclear power plant was built based on 1980s technology.
A major reason for the virtual standstill in nuclear energy development in the U.S. was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s near-maniacal effort to reassure a skittish public that they would not issue permits to any nuclear power plant that had the potential for public harm.
The shot heard round the world signaling a change in U.S. nuclear energy policy was the summary firing of NRC Commissioner Christopher Hanson, whose divinity school background may have contributed to a perception he viewed his job as more a gatekeeper for regulatory control than a partner in building a U.S. nuclear future.
As Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chair Shelley Moore Capito (R, WV) said, “For decades, the NRC took too long, cost too much, and did not have a predictable and efficient process to approve new licenses or modernize outdated regulations.”
Newly installed NRC Chair David Wright has called the Trump directives…
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