Public Acceptance For Nuclear Energy Returning In US

Nuclear Power – Back By Popular Demand??? 

Public Acceptance For Nuclear Energy Returning In US.   Under the headline, “US Renaissance: A Sea Change In Attitudes,” the Financial Times (11/9, McNulty) reports, “When Gwyneth Cravens set out to write about nuclear energy, it was going to be an article, not a book. She was against nuclear, first of all, and did not think anyone would want to read a full book about the energy source. That was 1999. This year, she published Power To Save The World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy. In the intervening eight years, not only had Ms Cravens changed her mind about nuclear, but the US had too.” The Times notes the industry’s long dormancy following the Chernobyl and TMI accidents and says “Nobody has even sought to build a plant in the US for 29 years. But in September, NRG Energy filed an application for a licence to do just that.” The Times adds that compared to coal, nuclear energy is “downright safe. There are 103 nuclear power plants in the US – supplying roughly 20 per cent of the country’s electricity – and yet the public rarely hears a peep out of them. Many of the plants are so old they are receiving 20-year extensions on their 40-year operating licences.