Posted 3/29/2009 05:53:00 PM by Douglas

I love how nuclear power gets tossed around like a wet blanket every time oil get expensive.

The story of the original collapse of the American nuclear industry has been told many times. It is basically the story of an immature industry that grew way too fast, quintupling the size of its plants in just a few years, even as it was struggling with dangerously complex new technologies and an understandably onerous regulatory process, buffeted by plummeting electricity demand and soaring interest rates. The last nuclear plant ordered by a U.S. utility broke ground in 1973 and took 23 years to finish. The average cost overrun for a reactor approached 300%; the Washington Public Power Supply System - known as "whoops" - walked away from three plants mid-construction, triggering the largest municipal bond default in U.S. history. Even the reactor that failed at TMI was $500 million over budget and five years behind schedule.

Yeah, they're not cheap, blah blah blah, but guess what is? Shivering in the dark.

Look, if your government would let the NRC approve breeder reactors, 99% of the waste issue goes away. So why don't we suck it up and build the damn things like France did? And we call them the pussies.