re: #382 marjoriemoon

Actually, it is a pretty good paradigm, because no state in the country gets anywhere near as much power from nuclear as France does.

Japan gets 30% of its electricity from nuclear.

The biggest hurdle in the US right now is where to put the waste. Reid has thwarted the opening of Yucca Mt., and reprocessing spent uranium isn’t going to happen anytime soon in the US. Storing the waste in the national repository at Yucca Mt. would reduce costs to the utilities that are currently trying to store the waste at their facilities around the country (either dry casks or in containment pools, some of which have an annoying tendency to leak (see Indian Pt in NY)). The national repository has been paid for by the utilities via taxes taken out over the years, and Reid has personally held up the opening because it’s in his home state, and yet he also has the audacity to keep it limping along because it generates a couple of jobs - just enough to take credit for, but not too many that would get the project to fruition.

Siting nuclear energy facilities around the country could begin with colocating with existing nuclear power plants, and could be done in conjunction with building a smart grid and electrification of rail in anticipation of high speed rail in certain locations.

But none of it is going to happen with the NIMBYots around; who not only don’t want new nuclear power plants, but want to shut down existing ones (without saying where the power differential will come from).