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US Congress Passes Bill To Help Advanced Nuclear Power (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Last week, the House passed a bipartisan bill that originated in the Senate called the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act (S. 97), which will allow the private sector to partner with U.S. National Laboratories to vet advanced nuclear technologies. The bill also directs the Department of Energy (DOE) to lay the ground work for establishing "a versatile, reactor-based fast neutron source." The Senate also introduced a second bill called the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act (S. 3422) last Thursday, which would direct the DOE to actually establish that fast neutron reactor. That bill also directs the DOE to "make available high-assay, low-enriched uranium" for research purposes. The Nuclear Energy Leadership Act has not yet made it past a Senate vote. The report also mentions a recent U.S. Court of Appeals ruling to keep older reactors online. "The court said that subsidies for nuclear energy proposed by Illinois don't cause any interference with federal control over interstate power markets, which is prohibited," reports Ars.
"In 2017 the state of Illinois agreed to offer a Zero Emissions Credit that included nuclear energy (PDF). The credit was opposed by fossil fuel generators and by the Electric Power Supply Association, who sued the director of the Illinois Power Agency. But the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Department of Justice filed a joint brief in the case several months ago, saying those federal agencies had no problem with Illinois' credit system, according to Utility Dive."
"In 2017 the state of Illinois agreed to offer a Zero Emissions Credit that included nuclear energy (PDF). The credit was opposed by fossil fuel generators and by the Electric Power Supply Association, who sued the director of the Illinois Power Agency. But the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Department of Justice filed a joint brief in the case several months ago, saying those federal agencies had no problem with Illinois' credit system, according to Utility Dive."
It's ironic that Trump is derided for leaving the Paris accord, when he's the only one taking actions to significantly improve the climate.
The end game for truly low emissions is solar + nuclear. No way you can get there with solar alone - and Trump's government is helping to push nuclear in ways that Obama (being of that old green school) simply would not allow, no matter how much of the planet dies as a result.
Eventually the world will come back around to nuclear once they see more modern nuclear designs in action and stop having freak-outs just because something has "nuclear" in the name. A lot of the older "environmentalists" will be passing away and the more pragmatic real environmentalists will finally allow nuclear power to hold the proper respect it deserves for helping the Earth.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's been something like 40 years since Jimmy Carter stopped this dead. Long over due that we pursue power technologies that are here and actually work.
Oh and prediction, there will be lots of cheesed off solar zealots that aren't engineers couldn't tell you a thing about electricity or even properly identify the metals used in transmission lines coming on thread bitching and moaning, because they thought solar was magic that would let them stick it to the man.
Nuclear is soo expensive due to the greenies throwing up ridiculous rules and regulations that paradoxically make nuclear energy less safe. Reactors use 1950s technology because the compasionate greens make it so hard to innovate. You can design reactors to be much much safer than they are now, but we dont ironically due to all the safety rules. If Solar and wind had to deal with the same requirments as nuclear it would cost 100 usd per KW h. Society is supposed to advance, but we are regressing. Rather than using more energy dense sources of power we are going back to using windmills like they did in the 1600s.
If Trump were serious about promoting nuclear, he would open Yucca Mountain.
He is president, not dictator. YM is blocked by congress. Harry Reid is gone, so there is hope, but Donald can't do anything until congress acts.
Explain that a fuel recycling facility fed from this storage buffer would provide high-quality jobs for Nevadans.
That is logical, but nuclear policy isn't about logic.
Anyway, continuing to store waste on-site is good enough for several more decades. YM is not a critical path problem.
Struggled, even when they had not just a majority for 4 of the 8 years, but a super-majority (filibuster-proof) for a good chunk of that, too. Easier to blame failures on the "other side" than the reality that even the President's own party thought much of what he offered was poor...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
With gargantuan subsidies from taxpayers to construct, run, insure and then decommission that just aren't counted by nuke fans. Same as every other nuclear power plant in existence.