Nuclear policy of the United States
Encyclopedia
The nuclear energy policy of the United States developed within two main periods, from 1954–1992 and 2005–2010. The first period saw the ongoing building of nuclear power plants, the enactment of numerous pieces of legislation
such as the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974
, and the implementation of countless policies which have guided the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
and the Department of Energy
in the regulation and growth of nuclear energy
companies. This includes, but is not limited to, regulations of nuclear facilities, waste storage
, decommissioning of weapons-grade
materials, uranium mining
, and funding for nuclear companies, along with an increase in power plant building. Both legislation and bureaucratic regulations
of nuclear energy in the United States have been shaped by scientific research, private industries' wishes, and public opinion
, which has shifted over time and as a result of different nuclear disasters.
In the United States, there have been numerous legislative actions and policies implemented on a federal and state level to both regulate atomic energy and promote its expansion. Growth of nuclear power in the US ended in the 1980s, however the Energy Policy Act of 2005
was passed in 2005 which aimed to jump starting the nuclear industry though financial loan-guarantees for expansion and re-outfitting of nuclear plants. The success of this legislation is still undetermined, since all 17 companies that applied for funding are still in the planning phases on their 26 proposed building applications. Some of the proposed sites have even scrapped their building plans, and many think the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
further dampen the success of expansion of nuclear energy in the United States.
In 2008, the Energy Information Administration
projected almost 17 gigawatts of new nuclear power reactors by 2030, but in its 2011 projections, it "scaled back the 2030 projection to just five". Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
, public support for building nuclear power plants in the U.S. dropped to 43%, slightly lower than it was immediately after the Three Mile Island accident
in 1979, according to a CBS News poll. A survey conducted in April 2011 found that 64 percent of Americans opposed the construction of new nuclear reactors. A survey sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute
, conducted in September 2011, found that "62 percent of respondents said they favor the use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity in the United States, with 35 percent opposed".
In the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulates the nuclear energy industry more strictly than most other industries. The NRC and the Department of Energy (DOE), work together to insure plant safety, building and operational permits, movement and storage of nuclear waste
, management of weapons-grade byproducts of plants, radiation protection, and loan guarantees.
The United States has more active nuclear power plants than any other country in the world, with 104 plants out of the total 441 active sites and another 62 under construction worldwide. This is nearly twice as many sites as the next two countries, France (58) and Japan (55), combined. Construction of U.S. nuclear facilities peaked between the 1970s and 1980s, during which time, these facilities were granted 20-40 year operational permits.
In the early days of nuclear energy, the United States government did not allow for any private sector use of nuclear technology. In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the Atomic Energy Act of 1946
into law, which prohibited the dissemination of nuclear technology or information to other entities, both domestic and abroad. This act represented the fear that foreign nations, including allies, would gain the technology and use it against the U.S. As time went on, this fear subsided and interest from the public sector emerged, in the hope that nuclear power could provide a viable energy alternative to coal.
The Atomic Energy Act of 1954
, also under the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower
, amended the earlier act and ushered in the first nuclear age in the U.S. This amendment allowed the private sector to use certain government information about nuclear technology and establish private energy facilities. However, these facilities would have to abide by government rules and regulations and work closely with the government regarding the plant safety, mining, storage, transportation, and the use of weapons-grade byproducts.
it against power sales. Their consumers bore the risk and paid the capital cost."
Some nuclear experts began to voice dissenting views about nuclear power in 1969. These scientists included Ernest Sternglass from Pittsburg, Henry Kendall
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nobel laureate George Wald
and radiation specialist Rosalie Bertell
. These members of the scientific community "by expressing their concern over nuclear power, played a crucial role in demystifying the issue for other citizens", and nuclear power became an issue of major public protest
in the 1970s.
. Under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, a single agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, had responsibility for the development and production of nuclear weapon
s as well as the development and safety regulation of the civilian uses of nuclear materials. The Act of 1974 split these functions, assigning to one new agency, the Department of Energy, the responsibility for the development and production of nuclear weapons, promotion of nuclear power, and other energy-related work. Regulatory work, excluding regulation of defense nuclear facilities, it assigned to the NRC. The Act of 1974 gave the NRC its collegial structure and established its major offices. The later amendment to the act also provided protections for employees who raise nuclear safety concerns. Applications for new plants are filed with the NRC and usually take between three and five years to be approved. They require detailed reports on all reactor operations, transportation of fuels, enrichment, waste storage, mining of yellow cake, and more. Moreover, the government often "promises to provide incentives for building new plants through loan guarantees and tax credit
s," backs loans or even direct funding for building, and conducts atomic research to further the field.
was an executive order by President Richard Nixon
in 1970, which created the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This plan directed the EPA to establish "generally applicable environmental standards for the protection of the general environment from radioactive material."
Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1980 strengthened the executive and administrative roles of the NRC chairman, particularly in emergencies, transferring to the chairman "all the functions vested in the Commission pertaining to an emergency concerning a particular facility or materials ... regulated by the Commission." This reorganization plan also provided that all policy formulation, policy-related rulemaking, and orders and adjudications would remain vested with the full Commission.
(NPT) committed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in return for U.S. knowledge and materials in the form of nuclear reactors and fuel.
In addition to supplying countries with nuclear technology and materials, the U.S. would aid countries in their effort to identify domestic sources of alternative energy, consistent with economic and material resources, and in compliance with environmental standards within that country. In this way, the U.S. sought to ensure control over all information, technology, and materials relevant to nuclear activities.
The Nuclear Non-proliferation Act amended the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 by establishing new criteria governing U.S. nuclear exports licensed by the NRC. Congress directed the DOE to initiate and plan the design, construction, and operation activities for expansion of uranium enrichment
capacity, sufficient for domestic and foreign needs. The act specified that the nuclear non-proliferation controls would not expire annually, eliminating the need for extensions.
of uranium or thorium
mill sites, both active and inactive, in order to prevent or minimize, among other things, the diffusion of radon
into the environment. Title II of the act gives the NRC regulatory and licensing authority over mill tailing at sites under NRC license on or after January 1, 1978.
This also gave the DOE the responsibility of stabilizing, disposing, and controlling uranium mill tailings and other contaminated material at twenty-four uranium mill processing sites located across ten states and at approximately 5,200 associated properties.
In the 1950s and 1960s, private firms processed most uranium ore mined in the United States. After uranium mining came under federal control, companies abandoned their mill operations, leaving behind materials with potential long-term health hazards. These mills contained low-level radioactive wastes and other hazardous substances that eventually migrated to surrounding soil, groundwater
, surface water
, and emitted radon gas.
Under the Act, the DOE established the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project to monitor the cleanup of uranium mill tailings. The UMTRCA gave the NRC regulatory authority over the cleanup and licensing of mill tailing facilities at sites under NRC license. The EPA had the task of developing cleanup strategies and recording standards for mills. The UMTRA used on-site disposal methods for eleven of the mills, while excavating and disposing of the wastes found at the remaining thirteen sites to remote off-site disposal locations owned by the DOE.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982
established both the federal government’s responsibility to provide a place for the permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel
, and the generators' responsibility to bear the costs of permanent disposal. The Act provides for extensive state
, tribal, and public participation in the planning and development of permanent repositories. Amendments to the Act focused the federal government's efforts, through the DOE, on studying a possible site at Yucca Mountain
, Nevada
, but the project was canceled in 2009. Without a long-term solution to store nuclear waste, a nuclear renaissance
in the U.S. remains unlikely. Nine states have "explicit moratoria on new nuclear power until a storage solution emerges".
gives to states the responsibility to dispose of low-level radioactive waste generated within their borders and allows them to form compacts to locate facilities to serve a group of states. The Act provides that the facilities will be regulated by the NRC or by states that have entered into agreements with the NRC under section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act. The Act also requires the NRC to establish standards for determining when radionuclide
s are present in waste streams in sufficiently low concentrations or quantities as to be "below regulatory concern."
had a provision under Section 801, which directed the EPA to promulgate radiation protection standards for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The Yucca Mountain site was then designated by the federal government to serve as the permanent disposal site for used nuclear fuel and other radioactive materials from commercial nuclear power plants and U.S. Department of Defense activities. The costs for this project have reached $13.5 billion for this expected 25-year program. However, in 2009, President Barack Obama
fulfilled his campaign promise to end the shipping of nuclear waste to the site. This decision was made because Yucca Mountain is located over a large fault line and if the facility were damaged in an earthquake, then it would contaminate a large water reservoir
below the facility. Soon after this, the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives passed legislation to back Obama's decision, although the site is still active and being funded by the government ($196.8 million in the federal budget
), and over $33 billion was appropriated by Congress for various water projects at the Yucca facility. Although Obama has asked the NRC to devise another long-term solution to waste storage of spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors, as of yet, none have been proposed, and all radioactive waste is still being stored on-site at nuclear power plants.
Currently, there still are many remaining concerns as to where storage of nuclear waste should be stored or even if a central location is required. On May 24, 2011, the Institute for Policy Studies came out with a new report ranking various spent fuel sites and contending that spent nuclear reactor fuel needs to be moved en masse into safer dry cask storage rather than the current liquid pool system. However, Harry Reid
brushed aside such remarks with the contention that transport to a central site increases risks. "Leave it on-site where it is," he said last year. "You don't have to worry about transporting it. Saves the country billions and billions of dollars. Currently, Congress nor the NRC or DOE have established a fixed plan for nuclear waste and is still being stored on site at each nuclear facility.
of nuclear energy in America denotes the time period where political legislation was passed to promote the expansion of nuclear power in the United States. This second age started with the passing of the Energy Policy Act of 2005
, which made significant changes in nuclear policy and funding options for nuclear energy. Previous to this act, no nuclear policy/legislation had been passed since 1992. The Congress hoped this act would helped encourage utility companies to install more reactors and build more nuclear plants to meet the demands of the country's growing energy needs.
signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005
into law shortly after it passed in the Senate by a 74-26 margin and in the House by a 275-156 margin. Its focus was to provide funding and tax breaks to producers and consumers alike. Although it provided many incentives to individual consumers and green energy technology, nuclear energy gained the most concessions. The following are the incentives for nuclear energy:
In total, over almost $5 billion, as well as extensive tax breaks, were originally designated for nuclear funding, but far more would be put forth to back the loan guarantees. Within the actual legislation, the Secretary of the Interior
was charged with carrying out the legislation. In the matter of new funding for next-generation reactors, the Secretary's decision should be in line with the recommendations of the Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee in the report entitled "A Roadmap to Deploy New Nuclear Power Plants in the United States by 2010." In other sections, the Secretary was required to work with the Director of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology in the Department of Energy. This legislation jump-started the nuclear industry again by firmly establishing it as the alternate energy source that politicians wanted. Moreover, it provided financial backing for building, tax incentives, risk insurance, and repealed the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
which allowed utility companies to merge.
Soon after its passage, The Washington Post
critically analyzed the legislation and found that the nuclear industry received serious concessions from the government in the Environmental Policy Act of 2005. It wrote:
in Missouri. If all the sites come online, 28,800 MWe per year would be added to the power grid. These companies requested loan guarantees totaling far more than the budgeted $18.5 billion. In total, they requested and additional $122 billion, which would bring the overall projected production cost to $188 billion. The uranium enriched power plants only requested a total of $4 billion, which was later accepted by both the NRC and DOE. The provided loan guarantees encourage private lenders to fund these companies. In essence, the government is promising to protect lenders against 80% of their potential loss, and legitimatizes the investment by first having the DOE review their applications. Moreover, because they are only guarantees, they are not considered government appropriations; no taxpayer dollars are spent unless the loans fall through in a failed investment. Therefore, Congressional approval is thus easier to get.
Because of the enormous costs involved, the nuclear industry requested more loan guarantees from the government, totaling $100 billion. In February 2010, President Obama, who ran on a pro-nuclear platform, negotiated with the companies and added $36 billion to the budgeted $18.5 billion, bringing the total of $54.5 billion to the Presidential 2011 Budget for the DOE loans. The DOE also sought another $9 billion though other legislation for the utility companies, Southern Company
and Oglethorpe Power
for Plant Vogtle in Georgia
, as well as three other plants for the installation of five proposed reactor cores.
On April 19, 2011, The New York Times reported that NRG Energy
has ended construction of the two largest proposed nuclear plants in South Texas. NRG claims that they will write off the $331 million investment as a loss and according to David Crane
NRG's CEO, that unless the situation changes, the chance of continuing is “extremely daunting and at this point not particularly likely.”. Even though "The plan was for the South Texas Project 3 and 4 reactors, and was identified more than two years ago by the Energy Department as one of the four candidates for loan guarantees that were authorized by the 2005 Energy Act," NRG notes that there is a surplus in Texas of Natural Gas utilities and the nuclear incident in Japan has led to further funding problems for the facilities. Although NRG still plans on paying the full licencing costs to the NRC for the two proposed facilities, Crane told to the Dallas news that even if the project is resurrected, “it will have to be fueled by somebody else’s financial resources.” The halting of construction of these reactors marks the "second of the four to die; Calvert Cliffs 3, in Maryland, seems unlikely at this point, because Constellation Energy could not reach financial terms with the Energy Department. The department has granted a conditional loan guarantee to one project in Georgia and may give another to a project in South Carolina."
in 1983 when it ruled that, "It did not conflict with federal authority because it addressed legitimate state issues of economic and electricity reliability concerns, and not safety." Moreover, individual states also are allowed to have a public service commission that regulates electricity sales to consumers, and can either grant or deny any federal funds or loans appropriated for nuclear companies' construction in the state. They also have veto power over where nuclear waste is stored (unless overridden by Congress), such as in the case of the Yucca Mountain Waste Storage Facility. Finally, states are allowed to levy taxes on nuclear companies, which grants them power to prevent facilities from operating or encouraging new growth though tax breaks.
for proposed new reactors have been suspended or cancelled. As of October 2011, plans for about 30 new reactors in the United States have been "whittled down to just four, despite the promise of large subsidies and President Barack Obama’s support of nuclear power, which he reaffirmed after Fukushima". The only reactor currently under construction in America, at Watts Bar
, Tennessee
, was begun in 1973 and may be completed in 2012. Matthew Wald from the New York Times has reported that "the nuclear renaissance
is looking small and slow".
Generation III reactors are safer than older reactors like the GE MAC 1 at Fukushima, Vermont Yankee and other plants around the world. But after a decade in which the federal government did all it could to boost this new version of nuclear power, only one Generation III+ reactor project has been approved in the United States. Work on it has just begun in Georgia, and already "there are conflicts between the utility, Southern Company and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission". Moreover, this project is going forward only because it is in one of the few regions of the United States (the Southeast) where electricity markets were not deregulated. That means "the utility, operating on cost-plus basis, can pass on to rate-payers all its expense over-runs".
In 2008, the Energy Information Administration
projected almost 17 gigawatts of new nuclear power reactors by 2030, but in its 2011 projections, it "scaled back the 2030 projection to just five". Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
, public support for building nuclear power plants in the U.S. dropped to 43%, slightly lower than it was immediately after the Three Mile Island accident
in 1979, according to a CBS News poll. A survey conducted in April 2011 found that 64 percent of Americans opposed the construction of new nuclear reactors. A survey sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute
, conducted in September 2011, found that "62 percent of respondents said they favor the use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity in the United States, with 35 percent opposed".
, writer and professor at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
and a leading environmental researcher in nuclear energy policy
, in the United States alone, there were over 52 different incidents from 1959–2010, ranging from leaks, cooling rod malfunctions, explosions, cracks in the core, electrocutions, core overheating and other issues. These incidents led to the deaths of seven individuals and to costs estimated at $8.56 billion (inflation adjusted to 2006).
occurred when a valve was left open, letting out substantial amounts of reactor coolant.
Governor Dick Thornburgh
, on the advice of NRC Chairman Joseph Hendrie
, advised the evacuation "of pregnant women and pre-school age children...within a five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility." The evacuation zone was extended to a 20 mile radius on Friday March 30. Within days, 140,000 people had left the area. More than half of the population within the 20 mile radius remained in that area. According to a survey conducted in April 1979, 98% of the evacuees had returned to their homes within 3 weeks.
Although some debate remains, "several health studies found there were no long-term adverse effects on the health of the population living around Three Mile Island." "Even though there was a release of radiation, the radiation dose to people living within 10 miles of the plant was eight millirem, and no more than 100 millirem to any single individual. Eight millirem is about equal to a chest X-ray
, and 100 millirem is about a third of the average background radiation
received by U.S. residents in a year.
, USSR is generally considered to be the worst nuclear disaster, to date. On 25 April 1986, during routine maintenance, the crew at Chernobyl began preparing for a test of the reactor's turbine. During the test, the site experienced a loss of their main electrical power supply Because of this loss of power, the automatic shutdown mechanisms failed, and the reactor started to become unstable. As the Chernobyl operators tried to cool the rods by inserting them into the reactor core, a large power surge occurred. This is generally believed to be from a design flaw in the rods.
This power surge combined with the hot fuel rods touching the water in the reactor caused "fuel fragmentation along with rapid steam production and an increase in pressure." This led to the fuel rods to rupture, and the safety protocols for the reactor core could not withstand the damage of 3-4 of its fuel rod assemblies. The resulting pressure inside the core forced the covering plate of the reactor to dislodge itself, also "rupturing the fuel channels and jamming all the control rods, which by that time, were only half-way down." The resulting steam from the incident caused many of the emergency cooling circuits to malfunction. This led to a large fission
explosion which released radioactive materials into the atmosphere. In a period of a few seconds, a second explosion occurred which caused graphite
fragments of the fuel ruptured rods to be blasted into the atmosphere, although debate still exists, some scientists believe that it was caused by a "zirconium
-steam reactions"
According to World-Nuclear.org, "Two workers died as a result of the explosions. The graphite (of which, about a quarter of the 1200 tons
was estimated to have been ejected) and fuel became incandescent and started a number of fires, causing the main release of radioactivity into the environment. A total of about 14 EBq (14 x 1018 Bq
) of radioactivity was released, over half of it being from biologically-inert noble gas
es."
Following the explosion, hundreds of tons of water per hour were poured into the reactor to douse the fires which were releasing radioactive smoke. However, this was quickly abandoned after half a day, to prevent water from flooding units 1 and 2. For the next eight days, "Some 5000 tons of boron
, dolomite
, sand, clay and lead were dropped by helicopter onto the burning core in an effort to extinguish the blaze and limit the release of radioactive particles."
Aside from the two initial deaths, officially, 28 more died
in the following weeks. Soon after, 336,000 people were evacuated after the explosion and fire. Eradiated ash, dust, and smoke traveled across much of Europe including Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. There is a heated debate over the official number of deaths, illnesses and subsequent birth defects caused by the plant's meltdown. The estimated number of deaths potentially resulting from the accident vary enormously; the World Health Organization
(WHO) suggested it could reach 4,000 while a Greenpeace
report puts this figure at 200,000 or more. According to WHO, by mid-2005, only about 50 deaths could be directly associated with the disaster.
were reinforced by media pictures of deformed babies and other atrocities from the fallout in the Soviet Union
after Chernobyl. Citizen pressure forced the NRC to address many issues alarming the public, resulting in "improved reactor safety, reporting abnormal occurrences at power plants, revised radiation standards, protecting nuclear plants from sabotage, safeguarding nuclear materials from theft, licensing the export of nuclear equipment and fuel, authorizing steps to use plutonium as fuel for nuclear power, and other matters." Shortly after the 1979 Three Mile Island incident, a poll by The New York Times
and CBS
found that public approval for building new nuclear plants dropped from 69% to 49% and opposition increased from 21% to 41%. Similarly, after the Chernobyl incident, a CBS news poll showed that 55% of those questioned believed a similar meltdown was likely to happen in the U.S.
After Chernobyl, with popular fear and distrust of nuclear power, and most energy companies preferring coal-fired plants, the U.S. nuclear industry went dormant for many years, although legislation continued until 1992. Although nuclear plants were still quite active and even improving production and safety practices, construction of new plants ended in the late 1980s. This was acceptable to many utility companies, because most of the plants were licensed to operate on 20-40 year contracts, despite an unfavorable political climate
. Over time, numerous polls showed a steady increase in public support and decrease in opposition, except for a temporary drop in numbers after the September 11 attacks and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. According to a Gallup poll
in 2009, 59% of the public favored the use of nuclear energy, including 27% who strongly favored it, an increase from 49% since 2001. Moreover, in 2009, the Gallup poll showed 56% people believed nuclear energy was safe versus 42% who believed it was unsafe. Other polls showed an even larger gap; Bloomberg
and The Los Angeles Times found that 61% supported nuclear energy, while 30% opposed in 2010. Bisconti Research Inc./Gfk Roper
, market research
ers commissioned by the Nuclear Energy Institute
, a nuclear industry lobbying
group, found that “A record-high 74 percent of Americans surveyed in a new national poll support nuclear energy and a similar majority of 70 percent says the United States should "definitely build more" nuclear energy facilities [in 2010].” According to Ann Bisconti, Ph.D, "This unprecedented support for nuclear energy is being driven largely by people's concerns for meeting future energy demand and environmental goals, but it coincides with statements by President Obama and other national leaders who have voiced strong support for more nuclear power plants."
, with public support for building nuclear power plants in the U.S. dropping slightly lower than it was immediately after the Three Mile Island accident
in 1979. Support had been at an all-time high of 69 percent in 1977, according to polling by the New York Times and CBS News. 43 percent of those polled after the Fukushima nuclear emergency
said they would approve building new power plants in the United States. This represents a decline from a high of 57 percent in July 2008.
Activists who were involved in the U.S. anti-nuclear movement’s emergence (such as Graham Nash
and Paul Gunter
) suggest that Japan’s nuclear crisis may rekindle an interest in the movement in the United States. The aim, they say, is "not just to block the Obama administration’s push for new nuclear construction, but to convince Americans that existing plants pose dangers".
Public opinion appears to have been aroused with regard to the re-licensing application of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant
.Nuclear regulatory Commission officials had already planned to conduct a series of public meetings in January, February and March 2011 as public attention in San Luis Obispo County turned towards the question of whether the plant should be re-licensed subsequent to public disclosure of a third major earthquake fault close to the plant. Protest leaders contend that there is no safe way to store spent reactor fuel, but other community leaders such as the mayor of a nearby town dispute that contention. In a review of current trends, state Sen. Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo), who holds a doctorate in geophysics, was quoted as stating:
"The fundamental question is whether these facilities should be located next to active faults and whether they are operated safely", said. "With what's unfolding in Japan, why would anyone approve a permit for these plants to keep operating until every question is answered?"
In March 2011, 600 people gathered for a weekend protest outside the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The demonstration was held to show support for the thousands of Japanese people who are endangered by possible radiation from the Fukushima I nuclear accidents.
The New England region has a long history of anti-nuclear
activism and 75 people held a State House rally on April 6, 2011, to "protest the region’s aging nuclear plants and the increasing stockpile of radioactive spent fuel rods at them". The protest was held shortly before a State House hearing where legislators were scheduled to hear representatives of the region’s three nuclear plants—Pilgrim
in Plymouth, Vermont Yankee
in Vernon, and Seabrook
in New Hampshire—talk about the safety of their reactors in the light of the Japanese nuclear crisis. Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim have designs similar to the crippled Japanese nuclear plant.
It was the anniversary of the US Three Mile Island nuclear incident which was the occasion of a substantial rally in South Korea in March 2011. South Korean environmental activists staged an anti-nuclear rally on Monday, marking the 32nd anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in the United States.
In Pennsylvania, "dozens" reportedly turned out for the 32nd anniversary of the Three Mile Island event.
In contrast to the apparently reinvigorated protests in Europe, California and New England, the dozens of protesters gathering at the gates of the TMI plant received and in the coverage received, organizers referred only obliquely to the Fukushima incident.
"Plants age, we knew that [industry] profit motives rather than safety motives meant there was going to be another accident”, said Gene Stilp, the organizer of the Three Mile Island protest and No Nukes Pennsylvania member, to the German Press Agency DPA. He urged the United States to discontinue producing nuclear energy, expressing doubt in U.S. nuclear power plants’ preparedness for unforeseen natural disasters. "You can't control mother nature," he reasoned."
The article continued to quote the U.S. Nuclear Energy Foundation to the effect that too much stock is being put into the fear surrounding Fukushima power plant. On a policy level, United States officials were wary. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told Congress that the Obama administration intends to hold the course on underwriting new nuclear power plants. "The people in the United States, U.S. territories, are in no danger”, Chu said during a Fox News Sunday broadcast. "It's unlikely they will be exposed to danger." As the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit 2011 Keynote Presentation, he skirted the nuclear issue and argued for a "longer term more measured approach". He emphasized lithium-ion batteries, high-speed rail, computerized design for streamlining long-haul trucks, carbon capture and other technologies, emphasizing that Europe and China may be surpassing the USA in clean energy and roboticized manufacturing. The power point presentation, and a video
of the presentation, are available online. The US is in the lead of venture capital financing, technology adaptation and deployment but in many areas is neck and neck with China. Many of his comments seem broadly applicable to nuclear policy, such as that "just because we've lost a lead doesn't mean we can't recover it." ARPA-E is Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, a relatively new United States government agency set up to promote and fund research and development.
Nevertheless, the nuclear disaster in Japan is likely to have major effects on US energy policy, according to billionaire investor Warren Buffett
. Speaking on CNBC in March, Buffet said that the "United States was poised to move ahead with nuclear plans here, but the events in Japan derailed that". "Radiation terrifies people", Buffett told CNBC. "It's unseen, there's no way to quantify sort of the limits of what might happen from it so I would say that I would be very surprised if there's any nuclear facilities built in the United States for a long time." Morever Japan's government and TEPCO response to the Fukushima Daiichi incident has been criticized worldwide, and Gregory B. Jaczko, Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission broke with ordinary protocols by overuling the Japanese with regard to the public exclusion zone. As a result of the harshly criticized Japanese handling of the crisis, there has been a scramble by the EU to reform nuclear policy. Some commentators expect that US will have greater influence on nuclear policy worldwide.
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...
such as the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974
Energy Reorganization Act of 1974
The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 is a United States federal law that established the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, a single agency, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, had responsibility for the development and production of nuclear weapons and for both...
, and the implementation of countless policies which have guided the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...
and the Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
in the regulation and growth of nuclear energy
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
companies. This includes, but is not limited to, regulations of nuclear facilities, waste storage
Radioactive waste
Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...
, decommissioning of weapons-grade
Weapons-grade
A weapons-grade substance is one that is pure enough to be used to make a weapon or has properties that make it suitable for weapons use. Weapons-grade plutonium and uranium are the most common examples, but it may also be used to refer to chemical and biological weapons...
materials, uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...
, and funding for nuclear companies, along with an increase in power plant building. Both legislation and bureaucratic regulations
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
of nuclear energy in the United States have been shaped by scientific research, private industries' wishes, and public opinion
Public opinion
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....
, which has shifted over time and as a result of different nuclear disasters.
In the United States, there have been numerous legislative actions and policies implemented on a federal and state level to both regulate atomic energy and promote its expansion. Growth of nuclear power in the US ended in the 1980s, however the Energy Policy Act of 2005
Energy Policy Act of 2005
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a bill passed by the United States Congress on July 29, 2005, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico...
was passed in 2005 which aimed to jump starting the nuclear industry though financial loan-guarantees for expansion and re-outfitting of nuclear plants. The success of this legislation is still undetermined, since all 17 companies that applied for funding are still in the planning phases on their 26 proposed building applications. Some of the proposed sites have even scrapped their building plans, and many think the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric ,...
further dampen the success of expansion of nuclear energy in the United States.
In 2008, the Energy Information Administration
Energy Information Administration
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is the statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. EIA collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and...
projected almost 17 gigawatts of new nuclear power reactors by 2030, but in its 2011 projections, it "scaled back the 2030 projection to just five". Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric ,...
, public support for building nuclear power plants in the U.S. dropped to 43%, slightly lower than it was immediately after the Three Mile Island accident
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....
in 1979, according to a CBS News poll. A survey conducted in April 2011 found that 64 percent of Americans opposed the construction of new nuclear reactors. A survey sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute
Nuclear Energy Institute
The Nuclear Energy Institute is a nuclear industry lobbying group in the United States.- Synopsis :According to its website, the NEI "develops policy on key legislative and regulatory issues affecting the industry. NEI then serves as a unified industry voice before the U.S...
, conducted in September 2011, found that "62 percent of respondents said they favor the use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity in the United States, with 35 percent opposed".
History of the Nuclear energy policy of the United States
Unexpectedly high costs in the nuclear weapons program created "pressure on federal officials to develop a civilian nuclear power industry that could help justify the government's considerable expenditures".In the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulates the nuclear energy industry more strictly than most other industries. The NRC and the Department of Energy (DOE), work together to insure plant safety, building and operational permits, movement and storage of nuclear waste
Radioactive waste
Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...
, management of weapons-grade byproducts of plants, radiation protection, and loan guarantees.
The United States has more active nuclear power plants than any other country in the world, with 104 plants out of the total 441 active sites and another 62 under construction worldwide. This is nearly twice as many sites as the next two countries, France (58) and Japan (55), combined. Construction of U.S. nuclear facilities peaked between the 1970s and 1980s, during which time, these facilities were granted 20-40 year operational permits.
Atomic Energy Act of 1946
The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 determined how the United States federal government would control and manage the nuclear technology it had jointly developed with its wartime allies...
into law, which prohibited the dissemination of nuclear technology or information to other entities, both domestic and abroad. This act represented the fear that foreign nations, including allies, would gain the technology and use it against the U.S. As time went on, this fear subsided and interest from the public sector emerged, in the hope that nuclear power could provide a viable energy alternative to coal.
The Atomic Energy Act of 1954
Atomic Energy Act of 1954
The Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 42 U.S.C. § 2011 et seq., is a United States federal law that is, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "the fundamental U.S...
, also under the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, amended the earlier act and ushered in the first nuclear age in the U.S. This amendment allowed the private sector to use certain government information about nuclear technology and establish private energy facilities. However, these facilities would have to abide by government rules and regulations and work closely with the government regarding the plant safety, mining, storage, transportation, and the use of weapons-grade byproducts.
First nuclear age
There were two phases in U.S. nuclear policy. The first phase lasted from approximately 1954 to 1992. By the end of the 1980s, new plants were being built, and after 1992, there was a period of 13 years without any substantial nuclear legislation. The United States was not the first nation to create a nuclear power plant. Both Russia and England managed to establish small, limited power plants before the U.S. Although developments were taking place in the U.S. private sector before the 1954 act, it was not until mid-1956 that the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania came online. This facility, which generated 50 MW of power per year, and later up to 200 MW, was the first full-scale nuclear power plant in the U.S. and the world. In the coming years, more and more plants were built by regulated utility companies, often state-based. These companies would "put the capital cost into their rate base and amortizeAmortization
Amortization is the process of decreasing, or accounting for, an amount over a period. The word comes from Middle English amortisen to kill, alienate in mortmain, from Anglo-French amorteser, alteration of amortir, from Vulgar Latin admortire to kill, from Latin ad- + mort-, mors death.When used...
it against power sales. Their consumers bore the risk and paid the capital cost."
Some nuclear experts began to voice dissenting views about nuclear power in 1969. These scientists included Ernest Sternglass from Pittsburg, Henry Kendall
Henry Kendall
Henry Kendall may refer to:*Henry Kendall , British stage and film character actor*Henry Kendall , Australian ornithologist*Henry Kendall , Australian poet...
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nobel laureate George Wald
George Wald
George Wald was an American scientist who is best known for his work with pigments in the retina. He won a share of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Haldan Keffer Hartline and Ragnar Granit.- Research :...
and radiation specialist Rosalie Bertell
Rosalie Bertell
Rosalie Bertell is an American physician and epidemiologist best known for her work in the field of ionizing radiation. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, she has worked in environmental health since 1970....
. These members of the scientific community "by expressing their concern over nuclear power, played a crucial role in demystifying the issue for other citizens", and nuclear power became an issue of major public protest
Anti-nuclear protests
Anti-nuclear protests first emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the United Kingdom, the first Aldermaston March, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, took place in 1958. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace...
in the 1970s.
Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and NRC governing laws
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was established under the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974Energy Reorganization Act of 1974
The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 is a United States federal law that established the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, a single agency, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, had responsibility for the development and production of nuclear weapons and for both...
. Under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, a single agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, had responsibility for the development and production of nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s as well as the development and safety regulation of the civilian uses of nuclear materials. The Act of 1974 split these functions, assigning to one new agency, the Department of Energy, the responsibility for the development and production of nuclear weapons, promotion of nuclear power, and other energy-related work. Regulatory work, excluding regulation of defense nuclear facilities, it assigned to the NRC. The Act of 1974 gave the NRC its collegial structure and established its major offices. The later amendment to the act also provided protections for employees who raise nuclear safety concerns. Applications for new plants are filed with the NRC and usually take between three and five years to be approved. They require detailed reports on all reactor operations, transportation of fuels, enrichment, waste storage, mining of yellow cake, and more. Moreover, the government often "promises to provide incentives for building new plants through loan guarantees and tax credit
Tax credit
A tax credit is a sum deducted from the total amount a taxpayer owes to the state. A tax credit may be granted for various types of taxes, such as an income tax, property tax, or VAT. It may be granted in recognition of taxes already paid, as a subsidy, or to encourage investment or other behaviors...
s," backs loans or even direct funding for building, and conducts atomic research to further the field.
Reorganization plans
Reorganization Plan No. 3Reorganization Plan No. 3
Reorganization Plan No. 3 was an executive order submitted to the United States Congress on July 9, 1970 by President Richard Nixon establishing the Environmental Protection Agency and setting forth the components of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
was an executive order by President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
in 1970, which created the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This plan directed the EPA to establish "generally applicable environmental standards for the protection of the general environment from radioactive material."
Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1980 strengthened the executive and administrative roles of the NRC chairman, particularly in emergencies, transferring to the chairman "all the functions vested in the Commission pertaining to an emergency concerning a particular facility or materials ... regulated by the Commission." This reorganization plan also provided that all policy formulation, policy-related rulemaking, and orders and adjudications would remain vested with the full Commission.
Nuclear Non-proliferation Act of 1978
The Nuclear Non-proliferation Act of 1978 sought to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. Among other things, it established criteria governing U.S. nuclear exports licensed by the NRC and took steps to strengthen the international safeguards system. This helped ensure the security of the United States. Countries that signed the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation TreatyNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to...
(NPT) committed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in return for U.S. knowledge and materials in the form of nuclear reactors and fuel.
In addition to supplying countries with nuclear technology and materials, the U.S. would aid countries in their effort to identify domestic sources of alternative energy, consistent with economic and material resources, and in compliance with environmental standards within that country. In this way, the U.S. sought to ensure control over all information, technology, and materials relevant to nuclear activities.
The Nuclear Non-proliferation Act amended the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 by establishing new criteria governing U.S. nuclear exports licensed by the NRC. Congress directed the DOE to initiate and plan the design, construction, and operation activities for expansion of uranium enrichment
Enriched uranium
Enriched uranium is a kind of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Natural uranium is 99.284% 238U isotope, with 235U only constituting about 0.711% of its weight...
capacity, sufficient for domestic and foreign needs. The act specified that the nuclear non-proliferation controls would not expire annually, eliminating the need for extensions.
Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978
The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 (UMTRCA) was designed to establish programs for the stabilization and control of mill tailingsTailings
Tailings, also called mine dumps, slimes, tails, leach residue, or slickens, are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore...
of uranium or thorium
Thorium
Thorium is a natural radioactive chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder....
mill sites, both active and inactive, in order to prevent or minimize, among other things, the diffusion of radon
Radon
Radon is a chemical element with symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas, occurring naturally as the decay product of uranium or thorium. Its most stable isotope, 222Rn, has a half-life of 3.8 days...
into the environment. Title II of the act gives the NRC regulatory and licensing authority over mill tailing at sites under NRC license on or after January 1, 1978.
This also gave the DOE the responsibility of stabilizing, disposing, and controlling uranium mill tailings and other contaminated material at twenty-four uranium mill processing sites located across ten states and at approximately 5,200 associated properties.
In the 1950s and 1960s, private firms processed most uranium ore mined in the United States. After uranium mining came under federal control, companies abandoned their mill operations, leaving behind materials with potential long-term health hazards. These mills contained low-level radioactive wastes and other hazardous substances that eventually migrated to surrounding soil, groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
, surface water
Surface water
Surface water is water collecting on the ground or in a stream, river, lake, wetland, or ocean; it is related to water collecting as groundwater or atmospheric water....
, and emitted radon gas.
Under the Act, the DOE established the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project to monitor the cleanup of uranium mill tailings. The UMTRCA gave the NRC regulatory authority over the cleanup and licensing of mill tailing facilities at sites under NRC license. The EPA had the task of developing cleanup strategies and recording standards for mills. The UMTRA used on-site disposal methods for eleven of the mills, while excavating and disposing of the wastes found at the remaining thirteen sites to remote off-site disposal locations owned by the DOE.
Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended
Nuclear Waste Policy Act
During the first 40 years that nuclear waste was being created in the United States, no legislation was enacted to manage its disposal. Nuclear waste, some of which remains dangerously radioactive with a half-life of more than one million years, was kept in various types of temporary storage...
established both the federal government’s responsibility to provide a place for the permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel
Spent nuclear fuel
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor...
, and the generators' responsibility to bear the costs of permanent disposal. The Act provides for extensive state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
, tribal, and public participation in the planning and development of permanent repositories. Amendments to the Act focused the federal government's efforts, through the DOE, on studying a possible site at Yucca Mountain
Yucca Mountain
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository was to be a deep geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel and other high level radioactive waste, until the project was canceled in 2009. It was to be located on federal land adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in Nye County,...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, but the project was canceled in 2009. Without a long-term solution to store nuclear waste, a nuclear renaissance
Nuclear renaissance
Since about 2001 the term nuclear renaissance has been used to refer to a possible nuclear power industry revival, driven by rising fossil fuel prices and new concerns about meeting greenhouse gas emission limits. At the same time, various barriers to a nuclear renaissance have been identified...
in the U.S. remains unlikely. Nine states have "explicit moratoria on new nuclear power until a storage solution emerges".
Low-level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985
The Low-level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985Low-level radioactive waste policy of the United States
Radioactive waste is generated from the nuclear weapons program, commercial nuclear power, medical applications, and corporate and university-based research programs. Some of the materials LLW consists of are: "gloves and other protective clothing, glass and plastic laboratory supplies, machine...
gives to states the responsibility to dispose of low-level radioactive waste generated within their borders and allows them to form compacts to locate facilities to serve a group of states. The Act provides that the facilities will be regulated by the NRC or by states that have entered into agreements with the NRC under section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act. The Act also requires the NRC to establish standards for determining when radionuclide
Radionuclide
A radionuclide is an atom with an unstable nucleus, which is a nucleus characterized by excess energy available to be imparted either to a newly created radiation particle within the nucleus or to an atomic electron. The radionuclide, in this process, undergoes radioactive decay, and emits gamma...
s are present in waste streams in sufficiently low concentrations or quantities as to be "below regulatory concern."
Energy Policy Act of 1992
The Energy Policy Act of 1992Energy Policy Act of 1992
The Energy Policy Act is a United States government act.It was passed by Congress and addressed energy efficiency, energy conservation and energy management , natural gas imports and exports , alternative fuels and requiring certain fleets to acquire alternative fuel vehicles, which are capable of...
had a provision under Section 801, which directed the EPA to promulgate radiation protection standards for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The Yucca Mountain site was then designated by the federal government to serve as the permanent disposal site for used nuclear fuel and other radioactive materials from commercial nuclear power plants and U.S. Department of Defense activities. The costs for this project have reached $13.5 billion for this expected 25-year program. However, in 2009, President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
fulfilled his campaign promise to end the shipping of nuclear waste to the site. This decision was made because Yucca Mountain is located over a large fault line and if the facility were damaged in an earthquake, then it would contaminate a large water reservoir
Water reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
below the facility. Soon after this, the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives passed legislation to back Obama's decision, although the site is still active and being funded by the government ($196.8 million in the federal budget
United States federal budget
The Budget of the United States Government is the President's proposal to the U.S. Congress which recommends funding levels for the next fiscal year, beginning October 1. Congressional decisions are governed by rules and legislation regarding the federal budget process...
), and over $33 billion was appropriated by Congress for various water projects at the Yucca facility. Although Obama has asked the NRC to devise another long-term solution to waste storage of spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors, as of yet, none have been proposed, and all radioactive waste is still being stored on-site at nuclear power plants.
Currently, there still are many remaining concerns as to where storage of nuclear waste should be stored or even if a central location is required. On May 24, 2011, the Institute for Policy Studies came out with a new report ranking various spent fuel sites and contending that spent nuclear reactor fuel needs to be moved en masse into safer dry cask storage rather than the current liquid pool system. However, Harry Reid
Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...
brushed aside such remarks with the contention that transport to a central site increases risks. "Leave it on-site where it is," he said last year. "You don't have to worry about transporting it. Saves the country billions and billions of dollars. Currently, Congress nor the NRC or DOE have established a fixed plan for nuclear waste and is still being stored on site at each nuclear facility.
Nuclear renaissance
The nuclear renaissanceNuclear renaissance
Since about 2001 the term nuclear renaissance has been used to refer to a possible nuclear power industry revival, driven by rising fossil fuel prices and new concerns about meeting greenhouse gas emission limits. At the same time, various barriers to a nuclear renaissance have been identified...
of nuclear energy in America denotes the time period where political legislation was passed to promote the expansion of nuclear power in the United States. This second age started with the passing of the Energy Policy Act of 2005
Energy Policy Act of 2005
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a bill passed by the United States Congress on July 29, 2005, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico...
, which made significant changes in nuclear policy and funding options for nuclear energy. Previous to this act, no nuclear policy/legislation had been passed since 1992. The Congress hoped this act would helped encourage utility companies to install more reactors and build more nuclear plants to meet the demands of the country's growing energy needs.
Energy Policy Act of 2005
August 8, 2005, President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005
Energy Policy Act of 2005
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a bill passed by the United States Congress on July 29, 2005, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico...
into law shortly after it passed in the Senate by a 74-26 margin and in the House by a 275-156 margin. Its focus was to provide funding and tax breaks to producers and consumers alike. Although it provided many incentives to individual consumers and green energy technology, nuclear energy gained the most concessions. The following are the incentives for nuclear energy:
- Production tax credit of 2.1 ¢/kWh from the first 6,000 MWeMWEMWE may refer to:*Manufacturer's Weight Empty*McDermott Will & Emery*Midwest Express, an airline*Merowe Airport - IATA code*Multiword expressionMWe may refer to:*Megawatt electrical...
of new nuclear capacity in their first eight years of operation. - Federal risk insurance of $2 billion to cover regulatory delays in full-power operation of the first six advanced new plants.
- Rationalized tax on decommissioning funds.
- Federal loan guarantees for advanced nuclear reactors or other emission-free technologies up to 80% of the project cost.
- Extension for 20 years of the Price Anderson Act for nuclear liability protection.
- Support for advanced nuclear technology.
- $1.25 billion was authorized for an advanced high-temperature reactor (Next Generation Nuclear PlantNext Generation Nuclear PlantA Next Generation Nuclear Plant is a generation IV version of the Very High Temperature Reactor that could be coupled to a neighboring hydrogen production facility. It could also produce electricity and supply process heat...
) at the Idaho National LaboratoryIdaho National LaboratoryIdaho National Laboratory is an complex located in the high desert of eastern Idaho, between the town of Arco to the west and the cities of Idaho Falls and Blackfoot to the east. It lies within Butte, Bingham, Bonneville and Jefferson counties...
, capable of co-generating hydrogen. Overall, more than $2 billion was provided for hydrogen demonstration projects. Called the Nuclear Power 2010 ProgramNuclear Power 2010 ProgramThe "Nuclear Power 2010 Program" was unveiled by the U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham on February 14, 2002 as one means towards addressing the expected need for new power plants...
.
In total, over almost $5 billion, as well as extensive tax breaks, were originally designated for nuclear funding, but far more would be put forth to back the loan guarantees. Within the actual legislation, the Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...
was charged with carrying out the legislation. In the matter of new funding for next-generation reactors, the Secretary's decision should be in line with the recommendations of the Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee in the report entitled "A Roadmap to Deploy New Nuclear Power Plants in the United States by 2010." In other sections, the Secretary was required to work with the Director of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology in the Department of Energy. This legislation jump-started the nuclear industry again by firmly establishing it as the alternate energy source that politicians wanted. Moreover, it provided financial backing for building, tax incentives, risk insurance, and repealed the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 , , also known as the Wheeler-Rayburn Act, was a law that was passed by the United States Congress to facilitate regulation of electric utilities, by either limiting their operations to a single state, and thus subjecting them to effective state...
which allowed utility companies to merge.
Soon after its passage, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
critically analyzed the legislation and found that the nuclear industry received serious concessions from the government in the Environmental Policy Act of 2005. It wrote:
"The bill's biggest winner was probably the nuclear industry, which received billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks covering almost every facet of operations. There were subsidies for research into new reactor designs, "fusion energy," small-particle accelerators and reprocessing nuclear waste, which would reverse current U.S. policy. Rep. Ralph HallRalph HallRalph Moody Hall is a United States Representative from . First elected in 1980, Hall is the chairman of the Science Committee and a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee...
(R-Tex.) even inserted a $250,000 provision for research into using radiation to refine oil…The bill also included $2 billion for "risk insurance" in case new nuclear plants run into construction and licensing delays. And nuclear utilities will be eligible for taxpayer-backed loan guarantees of as much as 80 percent the cost of their plants."
Implementation of the Energy Act of 2005
The implementation of funding, loan guarantees, and more advanced research is the sole responsibly of the DOE. In 2008, the DOE began accepting applications from utility companies for the funding of construction promised in the 2005 legislation. Originally, the loan guarantees totaled $18.5 billion for nuclear power plants, and two billion on uranium enriched plants. To provide the funding to nuclear companies, their proposed plants would first need to be approved by the NRC for the initial construction. Currently, there are 26 known applications from 17 different utility companies (18 Before Duke Power and Progress Energy Merged), 17 of which have been approved or accepted for approval by the NRC. Of these NRC approvals, there are 14 newly proposed nuclear power plants, and 21 new reactor cores to be installed in existing facilities, using five different designs (as of 2011). Furthermore, the DOE also received two applications for uranium enriched power plants. As of March 21, 2011 The NRC has expected two new applications to be filed in 2012 by two companies, Blue Castle Project in Utah and CallawayCallaway
-People:* Ann Hampton Callaway, musician* Catherine Callaway, news anchor* David Callaway, nanophysicist* Dean Callaway, Australian rugby league footballer* Frank Callaway, Australian music educator...
in Missouri. If all the sites come online, 28,800 MWe per year would be added to the power grid. These companies requested loan guarantees totaling far more than the budgeted $18.5 billion. In total, they requested and additional $122 billion, which would bring the overall projected production cost to $188 billion. The uranium enriched power plants only requested a total of $4 billion, which was later accepted by both the NRC and DOE. The provided loan guarantees encourage private lenders to fund these companies. In essence, the government is promising to protect lenders against 80% of their potential loss, and legitimatizes the investment by first having the DOE review their applications. Moreover, because they are only guarantees, they are not considered government appropriations; no taxpayer dollars are spent unless the loans fall through in a failed investment. Therefore, Congressional approval is thus easier to get.
Because of the enormous costs involved, the nuclear industry requested more loan guarantees from the government, totaling $100 billion. In February 2010, President Obama, who ran on a pro-nuclear platform, negotiated with the companies and added $36 billion to the budgeted $18.5 billion, bringing the total of $54.5 billion to the Presidential 2011 Budget for the DOE loans. The DOE also sought another $9 billion though other legislation for the utility companies, Southern Company
Southern Company
Southern Company is a public utility holding company of primarily electric utilities in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is currently the 16th largest utility company in the world and the...
and Oglethorpe Power
Oglethorpe Power
Oglethorpe Power Corporation medium-sized electric utility in Georgia, United States. Formed in 1974, Ogelthorpe is a not-for-profit cooperative owned by the 39 electric membership corporations that it serves. The utility's headquarters are in Tucker, Georgia. It is the largest power supply...
for Plant Vogtle in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, as well as three other plants for the installation of five proposed reactor cores.
On April 19, 2011, The New York Times reported that NRG Energy
NRG Energy
NRG Energy, Inc. is an American energy company headquartered in West Windsor Township, New Jersey, near Princeton.-Electrical Power Generation Operations:...
has ended construction of the two largest proposed nuclear plants in South Texas. NRG claims that they will write off the $331 million investment as a loss and according to David Crane
David Crane
David Crane may refer to:* David Crane , former Chief Prosecutor for the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal for Sierra Leone* David Crane , video game designer, programmer and co-founder of Activision...
NRG's CEO, that unless the situation changes, the chance of continuing is “extremely daunting and at this point not particularly likely.”. Even though "The plan was for the South Texas Project 3 and 4 reactors, and was identified more than two years ago by the Energy Department as one of the four candidates for loan guarantees that were authorized by the 2005 Energy Act," NRG notes that there is a surplus in Texas of Natural Gas utilities and the nuclear incident in Japan has led to further funding problems for the facilities. Although NRG still plans on paying the full licencing costs to the NRC for the two proposed facilities, Crane told to the Dallas news that even if the project is resurrected, “it will have to be fueled by somebody else’s financial resources.” The halting of construction of these reactors marks the "second of the four to die; Calvert Cliffs 3, in Maryland, seems unlikely at this point, because Constellation Energy could not reach financial terms with the Energy Department. The department has granted a conditional loan guarantee to one project in Georgia and may give another to a project in South Carolina."
State response to nuclear expansion legislation
Most states have been complicit with the utility companies' installation of nuclear plants, but some states have not. Although the federal government has the foremost control over nuclear energy regulations, safety and funding, each state government has some say about whether or not to implement nuclear energy in their state. In 1976, California passed legislation which prevented new nuclear power plants from being built until an approved means of disposing of fuel-rod waste was approved. This legislation, which was also renewed in 2005, effectively put a moratorium on nuclear power plants in California, since no fuel-rod waste measure was ever approved. Soon afterwards, other states passed similar laws limiting nuclear energy influence in their state. This California legislation was reaffirmed by the U.S. Supreme CourtSupreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
in 1983 when it ruled that, "It did not conflict with federal authority because it addressed legitimate state issues of economic and electricity reliability concerns, and not safety." Moreover, individual states also are allowed to have a public service commission that regulates electricity sales to consumers, and can either grant or deny any federal funds or loans appropriated for nuclear companies' construction in the state. They also have veto power over where nuclear waste is stored (unless overridden by Congress), such as in the case of the Yucca Mountain Waste Storage Facility. Finally, states are allowed to levy taxes on nuclear companies, which grants them power to prevent facilities from operating or encouraging new growth though tax breaks.
Plans and cancellations
Many license applications filed with the Nuclear Regulatory CommissionNuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...
for proposed new reactors have been suspended or cancelled. As of October 2011, plans for about 30 new reactors in the United States have been "whittled down to just four, despite the promise of large subsidies and President Barack Obama’s support of nuclear power, which he reaffirmed after Fukushima". The only reactor currently under construction in America, at Watts Bar
Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station
The Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station is a Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear reactor used for electric power generation and tritium production for nuclear weapons. It is located on a 1,770-acre site in Rhea County, Tennessee, near Spring City, between the cities of Chattanooga and Knoxville...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, was begun in 1973 and may be completed in 2012. Matthew Wald from the New York Times has reported that "the nuclear renaissance
Nuclear renaissance
Since about 2001 the term nuclear renaissance has been used to refer to a possible nuclear power industry revival, driven by rising fossil fuel prices and new concerns about meeting greenhouse gas emission limits. At the same time, various barriers to a nuclear renaissance have been identified...
is looking small and slow".
Generation III reactors are safer than older reactors like the GE MAC 1 at Fukushima, Vermont Yankee and other plants around the world. But after a decade in which the federal government did all it could to boost this new version of nuclear power, only one Generation III+ reactor project has been approved in the United States. Work on it has just begun in Georgia, and already "there are conflicts between the utility, Southern Company and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission". Moreover, this project is going forward only because it is in one of the few regions of the United States (the Southeast) where electricity markets were not deregulated. That means "the utility, operating on cost-plus basis, can pass on to rate-payers all its expense over-runs".
In 2008, the Energy Information Administration
Energy Information Administration
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is the statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. EIA collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and...
projected almost 17 gigawatts of new nuclear power reactors by 2030, but in its 2011 projections, it "scaled back the 2030 projection to just five". Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric ,...
, public support for building nuclear power plants in the U.S. dropped to 43%, slightly lower than it was immediately after the Three Mile Island accident
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....
in 1979, according to a CBS News poll. A survey conducted in April 2011 found that 64 percent of Americans opposed the construction of new nuclear reactors. A survey sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute
Nuclear Energy Institute
The Nuclear Energy Institute is a nuclear industry lobbying group in the United States.- Synopsis :According to its website, the NEI "develops policy on key legislative and regulatory issues affecting the industry. NEI then serves as a unified industry voice before the U.S...
, conducted in September 2011, found that "62 percent of respondents said they favor the use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity in the United States, with 35 percent opposed".
Public response to nuclear accidents
Over the years, public opinion about the nuclear industry, both in the United States and worldwide, soured significantly after several nuclear-related incidents. According to Benjamin K. SovacoolBenjamin K. Sovacool
Benjamin K. Sovacool is a Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School and founding Director of the Energy Justice Program at their Institute for Energy and Environment. He was formerly an Assistant Professor and Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore.Sovacool's research...
, writer and professor at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy is a school of the National University of Singapore . It was established in 1992 as the Master of Public Policy Programme under the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of National University of Singapore in collaboration with the Kennedy School of Government...
and a leading environmental researcher in nuclear energy policy
Nuclear energy policy
Nuclear energy policy is a national and international policy concerning some or all aspects of nuclear energy, such as mining for nuclear fuel, extraction and processing of nuclear fuel from the ore, generating electricity by nuclear power, enriching and storing spent nuclear fuel and nuclear fuel...
, in the United States alone, there were over 52 different incidents from 1959–2010, ranging from leaks, cooling rod malfunctions, explosions, cracks in the core, electrocutions, core overheating and other issues. These incidents led to the deaths of seven individuals and to costs estimated at $8.56 billion (inflation adjusted to 2006).
1979 Three Mile Island accident
One of the largest accidents was the Three Mile Island incident in Middleton, Pennsylvania in 1979. Believed today to have been caused mostly by human error, a partial-meltdownNuclear meltdown
Nuclear meltdown is an informal term for a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency or by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission...
occurred when a valve was left open, letting out substantial amounts of reactor coolant.
Governor Dick Thornburgh
Dick Thornburgh
Richard Lewis "Dick" Thornburgh is an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as the 41st Governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987, and then as the U.S...
, on the advice of NRC Chairman Joseph Hendrie
Joseph Hendrie
Joseph M. Hendrie is a former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. On August 9, 1977 he was named to a four-year term on the Commission and designated as its Chairman by President Jimmy Carter...
, advised the evacuation "of pregnant women and pre-school age children...within a five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility." The evacuation zone was extended to a 20 mile radius on Friday March 30. Within days, 140,000 people had left the area. More than half of the population within the 20 mile radius remained in that area. According to a survey conducted in April 1979, 98% of the evacuees had returned to their homes within 3 weeks.
Although some debate remains, "several health studies found there were no long-term adverse effects on the health of the population living around Three Mile Island." "Even though there was a release of radiation, the radiation dose to people living within 10 miles of the plant was eight millirem, and no more than 100 millirem to any single individual. Eight millirem is about equal to a chest X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
, and 100 millirem is about a third of the average background radiation
Background radiation
Background radiation is the ionizing radiation constantly present in the natural environment of the Earth, which is emitted by natural and artificial sources.-Overview:Both Natural and human-made background radiation varies by location....
received by U.S. residents in a year.
1986 Chernobyl disaster
The 1986 disaster in ChernobylChernobyl
Chernobyl or Chornobyl is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city had been the administrative centre of the Chernobyl Raion since 1932....
, USSR is generally considered to be the worst nuclear disaster, to date. On 25 April 1986, during routine maintenance, the crew at Chernobyl began preparing for a test of the reactor's turbine. During the test, the site experienced a loss of their main electrical power supply Because of this loss of power, the automatic shutdown mechanisms failed, and the reactor started to become unstable. As the Chernobyl operators tried to cool the rods by inserting them into the reactor core, a large power surge occurred. This is generally believed to be from a design flaw in the rods.
This power surge combined with the hot fuel rods touching the water in the reactor caused "fuel fragmentation along with rapid steam production and an increase in pressure." This led to the fuel rods to rupture, and the safety protocols for the reactor core could not withstand the damage of 3-4 of its fuel rod assemblies. The resulting pressure inside the core forced the covering plate of the reactor to dislodge itself, also "rupturing the fuel channels and jamming all the control rods, which by that time, were only half-way down." The resulting steam from the incident caused many of the emergency cooling circuits to malfunction. This led to a large fission
Fission
Fission is a splitting of something into two parts.Fission may refer to:*In physics, nuclear fission is a process where a large atomic nucleus is split into two smaller particles....
explosion which released radioactive materials into the atmosphere. In a period of a few seconds, a second explosion occurred which caused graphite
Graphite
The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...
fragments of the fuel ruptured rods to be blasted into the atmosphere, although debate still exists, some scientists believe that it was caused by a "zirconium
Zirconium
Zirconium is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number 40. The name of zirconium is taken from the mineral zircon. Its atomic mass is 91.224. It is a lustrous, grey-white, strong transition metal that resembles titanium...
-steam reactions"
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
was estimated to have been ejected) and fuel became incandescent and started a number of fires, causing the main release of radioactivity into the environment. A total of about 14 EBq (14 x 1018 Bq
BQ
BQ may refer to:* Aeromar Líneas Aéreas Dominicanas IATA airline designator* Birds Queensland, the ornithological society of Queensland, Australia* Bloc Québécois, a political party of Canada* Broadcast quality...
) of radioactivity was released, over half of it being from biologically-inert noble gas
Noble gas
The noble gases are a group of chemical elements with very similar properties: under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases, with very low chemical reactivity...
es."
Following the explosion, hundreds of tons of water per hour were poured into the reactor to douse the fires which were releasing radioactive smoke. However, this was quickly abandoned after half a day, to prevent water from flooding units 1 and 2. For the next eight days, "Some 5000 tons of boron
Boron
Boron is the chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a metalloid. Because boron is not produced by stellar nucleosynthesis, it is a low-abundance element in both the solar system and the Earth's crust. However, boron is concentrated on Earth by the...
, dolomite
Dolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....
, sand, clay and lead were dropped by helicopter onto the burning core in an effort to extinguish the blaze and limit the release of radioactive particles."
Aside from the two initial deaths, officially, 28 more died
Deaths due to the Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster , was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant In the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , now in Ukraine...
in the following weeks. Soon after, 336,000 people were evacuated after the explosion and fire. Eradiated ash, dust, and smoke traveled across much of Europe including Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. There is a heated debate over the official number of deaths, illnesses and subsequent birth defects caused by the plant's meltdown. The estimated number of deaths potentially resulting from the accident vary enormously; the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
(WHO) suggested it could reach 4,000 while a Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
report puts this figure at 200,000 or more. According to WHO, by mid-2005, only about 50 deaths could be directly associated with the disaster.
Public opinion after Chernobyl
As the west began to learn about the Chernobyl incident, fear and anxiety about nuclear energy swelled in U.S. public opinion. Even as early as 1975, anti-nuclear movement coalitions were making strides in reducing the power of the nuclear industry. The coalitions were able to instill fear in the population over the many errors in the daily operations of nuclear energy plants, causing them to be constantly shut down, and exposing the ineffectiveness in their energy production. By this point, in the late 1980s, most U.S. plants were either at or close to completion, so the Chernobyl incident did not prevent plants from coming online. However, after 1986, anti-nuclear messagesEffects of nuclear explosions on human health
The medical effects of a nuclear blast upon humans can be put into four categories:*Initial stage -- the first 1–9 weeks, in which are the greatest number of deaths, with 90% due to thermal injury and/or blast effects and 10% due to super-lethal radiation exposure*Intermediate stage -- from 10–12...
were reinforced by media pictures of deformed babies and other atrocities from the fallout in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
after Chernobyl. Citizen pressure forced the NRC to address many issues alarming the public, resulting in "improved reactor safety, reporting abnormal occurrences at power plants, revised radiation standards, protecting nuclear plants from sabotage, safeguarding nuclear materials from theft, licensing the export of nuclear equipment and fuel, authorizing steps to use plutonium as fuel for nuclear power, and other matters." Shortly after the 1979 Three Mile Island incident, a poll by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
found that public approval for building new nuclear plants dropped from 69% to 49% and opposition increased from 21% to 41%. Similarly, after the Chernobyl incident, a CBS news poll showed that 55% of those questioned believed a similar meltdown was likely to happen in the U.S.
After Chernobyl, with popular fear and distrust of nuclear power, and most energy companies preferring coal-fired plants, the U.S. nuclear industry went dormant for many years, although legislation continued until 1992. Although nuclear plants were still quite active and even improving production and safety practices, construction of new plants ended in the late 1980s. This was acceptable to many utility companies, because most of the plants were licensed to operate on 20-40 year contracts, despite an unfavorable political climate
Political climate
The political climate is the aggregate, current mood and opinions of a populace about political issues that also currently affect that population. It is generally used to describe a state of change in mood and opinions rather than a state of equilibrium...
. Over time, numerous polls showed a steady increase in public support and decrease in opposition, except for a temporary drop in numbers after the September 11 attacks and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. According to a Gallup poll
The Gallup Organization
The Gallup Organization, is primarily a research-based performance-management consulting company. Some of Gallup's key practice areas are - Employee Engagement, Customer Engagement and Well-Being. Gallup has over 40 offices in 27 countries. World headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Operational...
in 2009, 59% of the public favored the use of nuclear energy, including 27% who strongly favored it, an increase from 49% since 2001. Moreover, in 2009, the Gallup poll showed 56% people believed nuclear energy was safe versus 42% who believed it was unsafe. Other polls showed an even larger gap; Bloomberg
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
and The Los Angeles Times found that 61% supported nuclear energy, while 30% opposed in 2010. Bisconti Research Inc./Gfk Roper
GfK
The GfK Group, established in 1934 as Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung is Germany's largest market research institute, and the fourth largest market research organisation in the world, after Nielsen Company, Kantar Group, and IMS Health...
, market research
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
ers commissioned by the Nuclear Energy Institute
Nuclear Energy Institute
The Nuclear Energy Institute is a nuclear industry lobbying group in the United States.- Synopsis :According to its website, the NEI "develops policy on key legislative and regulatory issues affecting the industry. NEI then serves as a unified industry voice before the U.S...
, a nuclear industry lobbying
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
group, found that “A record-high 74 percent of Americans surveyed in a new national poll support nuclear energy and a similar majority of 70 percent says the United States should "definitely build more" nuclear energy facilities [in 2010].” According to Ann Bisconti, Ph.D, "This unprecedented support for nuclear energy is being driven largely by people's concerns for meeting future energy demand and environmental goals, but it coincides with statements by President Obama and other national leaders who have voiced strong support for more nuclear power plants."
2011 Fukushima accidents and public policy impact
What had been growing acceptance of nuclear power in the United States was eroded sharply following the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents2011 Japanese nuclear accidents
This is a list of articles describing aspects of the nuclear shut-downs, failures, and nuclear meltdowns triggered by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.-Fukushima nuclear power plants:* Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant...
, with public support for building nuclear power plants in the U.S. dropping slightly lower than it was immediately after the Three Mile Island accident
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....
in 1979. Support had been at an all-time high of 69 percent in 1977, according to polling by the New York Times and CBS News. 43 percent of those polled after the Fukushima nuclear emergency
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric ,...
said they would approve building new power plants in the United States. This represents a decline from a high of 57 percent in July 2008.
Activists who were involved in the U.S. anti-nuclear movement’s emergence (such as Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
and Paul Gunter
Paul Gunter
Paul Gunter is a co-founder of the Clamshell Alliance anti-nuclear group, who was arrested at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant for non-violent civil disobedience on several occasions. An energy policy analyst and activist, he has been a vocal critic of nuclear power for more than 30 years...
) suggest that Japan’s nuclear crisis may rekindle an interest in the movement in the United States. The aim, they say, is "not just to block the Obama administration’s push for new nuclear construction, but to convince Americans that existing plants pose dangers".
Public opinion appears to have been aroused with regard to the re-licensing application of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Diablo Canyon Power Plant is an electricity-generating nuclear power plant at Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California. The plant has two Westinghouse-designed 4-loop pressurized-water nuclear reactors operated by Pacific Gas & Electric. The facility is located on about in Avila Beach,...
.Nuclear regulatory Commission officials had already planned to conduct a series of public meetings in January, February and March 2011 as public attention in San Luis Obispo County turned towards the question of whether the plant should be re-licensed subsequent to public disclosure of a third major earthquake fault close to the plant. Protest leaders contend that there is no safe way to store spent reactor fuel, but other community leaders such as the mayor of a nearby town dispute that contention. In a review of current trends, state Sen. Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo), who holds a doctorate in geophysics, was quoted as stating:
"The fundamental question is whether these facilities should be located next to active faults and whether they are operated safely", said. "With what's unfolding in Japan, why would anyone approve a permit for these plants to keep operating until every question is answered?"
In March 2011, 600 people gathered for a weekend protest outside the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The demonstration was held to show support for the thousands of Japanese people who are endangered by possible radiation from the Fukushima I nuclear accidents.
The New England region has a long history of anti-nuclear
Anti-nuclear
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...
activism and 75 people held a State House rally on April 6, 2011, to "protest the region’s aging nuclear plants and the increasing stockpile of radioactive spent fuel rods at them". The protest was held shortly before a State House hearing where legislators were scheduled to hear representatives of the region’s three nuclear plants—Pilgrim
Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station
Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station is currently the only nuclear power plant operating in the United States Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is located in the Manomet section of Plymouth on Cape Cod Bay, south of the tip of Rocky Point and north of Priscilla Beach...
in Plymouth, Vermont Yankee
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
Vermont Yankee is a General Electric boiling water reactor type nuclear power plant currently owned by Entergy. It is located in the town of Vernon, Vermont, and generates 620 megawatts of electricity at full power. The plant began commercial operations in 1972...
in Vernon, and Seabrook
Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant
The Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, more commonly known as Seabrook Station, is a nuclear power plant located in Seabrook, New Hampshire, approximately north of Boston and south of Portsmouth. Two units were planned, but the second unit was never completed due to construction delays, cost overruns...
in New Hampshire—talk about the safety of their reactors in the light of the Japanese nuclear crisis. Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim have designs similar to the crippled Japanese nuclear plant.
It was the anniversary of the US Three Mile Island nuclear incident which was the occasion of a substantial rally in South Korea in March 2011. South Korean environmental activists staged an anti-nuclear rally on Monday, marking the 32nd anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in the United States.
In Pennsylvania, "dozens" reportedly turned out for the 32nd anniversary of the Three Mile Island event.
In contrast to the apparently reinvigorated protests in Europe, California and New England, the dozens of protesters gathering at the gates of the TMI plant received and in the coverage received, organizers referred only obliquely to the Fukushima incident.
"Plants age, we knew that [industry] profit motives rather than safety motives meant there was going to be another accident”, said Gene Stilp, the organizer of the Three Mile Island protest and No Nukes Pennsylvania member, to the German Press Agency DPA. He urged the United States to discontinue producing nuclear energy, expressing doubt in U.S. nuclear power plants’ preparedness for unforeseen natural disasters. "You can't control mother nature," he reasoned."
The article continued to quote the U.S. Nuclear Energy Foundation to the effect that too much stock is being put into the fear surrounding Fukushima power plant. On a policy level, United States officials were wary. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told Congress that the Obama administration intends to hold the course on underwriting new nuclear power plants. "The people in the United States, U.S. territories, are in no danger”, Chu said during a Fox News Sunday broadcast. "It's unlikely they will be exposed to danger." As the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit 2011 Keynote Presentation, he skirted the nuclear issue and argued for a "longer term more measured approach". He emphasized lithium-ion batteries, high-speed rail, computerized design for streamlining long-haul trucks, carbon capture and other technologies, emphasizing that Europe and China may be surpassing the USA in clean energy and roboticized manufacturing. The power point presentation, and a video
of the presentation, are available online. The US is in the lead of venture capital financing, technology adaptation and deployment but in many areas is neck and neck with China. Many of his comments seem broadly applicable to nuclear policy, such as that "just because we've lost a lead doesn't mean we can't recover it." ARPA-E is Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, a relatively new United States government agency set up to promote and fund research and development.
Nevertheless, the nuclear disaster in Japan is likely to have major effects on US energy policy, according to billionaire investor Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett
Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world. Often introduced as "legendary investor, Warren Buffett", he is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is...
. Speaking on CNBC in March, Buffet said that the "United States was poised to move ahead with nuclear plans here, but the events in Japan derailed that". "Radiation terrifies people", Buffett told CNBC. "It's unseen, there's no way to quantify sort of the limits of what might happen from it so I would say that I would be very surprised if there's any nuclear facilities built in the United States for a long time." Morever Japan's government and TEPCO response to the Fukushima Daiichi incident has been criticized worldwide, and Gregory B. Jaczko, Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission broke with ordinary protocols by overuling the Japanese with regard to the public exclusion zone. As a result of the harshly criticized Japanese handling of the crisis, there has been a scramble by the EU to reform nuclear policy. Some commentators expect that US will have greater influence on nuclear policy worldwide.
See also
- Regulatory capture (see in relation to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
- Nuclear weapons of the United States - (see in relation to the Executive Branch - Military & DoD actions relating to Nuclear Weapons)
Further reading
- Aron, Joan (1998). Licensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power PlantLicensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power PlantLicensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power Plant, a 1998 book by Joan Aron, presents the first detailed case study of how an activist public and elected officials of New York state opposed the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant on Long Island...
, University of Pittsburgh Press. - Benduhn, Tea (2009) Energy for Today: Nuclear Power Weekly Reader Books
- Clarfield, Gerald H. and William M. Wiecek (1984). Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States 1940-1980, Harper & Row.
- Cragin, Susan (2007). Nuclear Nebraska: The Remarkable Story of the Little County That Couldn’t Be BoughtNuclear NebraskaNuclear Nebraska: The Remarkable Story of the Little County That Couldn’t Be Bought is a 2007 book by Susan Cragin which follows the controversy about a proposed low level nuclear waste dump which was planned for Boyd County, Nebraska....
, AMACOM. - Dunster, John (1973) New Science: Costs and Benefits of Nuclear Power New Scientists Magazine
- Ford, Daniel (1982). Three Mile Island: Thirty Minutes to MeltdownThree Mile Island: Thirty Minutes to MeltdownThree Mile Island: Thirty Minutes to Meltdown is a 1982 book by Daniel Ford. Ford presents a "meticulous post-mortem of the events that nearly led to a meltdown" at the Metropolitan Edison station near Harrisburg in March 1979. He analyses the complex of people, technology, customs and regulations...
. - Foreman, Harry (1970) Nuclear power and the public Copp Clark Publishing
- Fradkin, Philip L.Philip L. FradkinPhilip L. Fradkin is an American environmentalist historian, journalist and author. Fradkin has authored books ranging from Alaska, California and Nevada, with topics ranging from water conservation, earthquakes, and nuclear weapons....
(2004). Fallout: An American Nuclear TragedyFallout: An American Nuclear TragedyFallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy is a 1989 book by Philip L. Fradkin which was republished in a second edition in 2004. The book is about the radiation exposure of people and their livestock living downwind from the nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s. The case of...
, University of Arizona Press. - Fuller, John G.John G. FullerJohn Grant Fuller, Jr. was a New England-based American author of several non-fiction books and newspaper articles, mainly focusing on the theme of extra-terrestrials and the supernatural. For many years he wrote a regular column for the Saturday Review magazine, called "Trade Winds"...
(1975). We Almost Lost DetroitWe Almost Lost DetroitWe Almost Lost Detroit, a 1975 Reader's Digest book by John G. Fuller, presents a history of Fermi 1, America's first commercial breeder reactor, with emphasis on the 1966 partial nuclear meltdown. It was republished in 1984 by Berkley....
, Reader's Digest. - Giugni, Marco (2004). Social Protest and Policy Change: Ecology, Antinuclear, and Peace Movements in Comparative Perspective, Rowman and Littlefield.
- Lovins, Amory B.Amory LovinsAmory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
and Price, John H. (1975). Non-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy StrategyNon-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy StrategyNon-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy is a 1975 book by Amory B. Lovins and John H. Price. The main theme of the book is that the most important parts of the nuclear power debate are not technical disputes but relate to personal values, and are the legitimate province of...
, Ballinger Publishing Company, 1975, ISBN 0884106020 - Kaku, MIchio (1983). Nuclear Power: Both Sides: The Best Arguments For and Against the Most Controversial Technology, Norton Paperback
- McCafferty, David P. (1991). The Politics of Nuclear Power: A History of the Shoreham Power Plant, Kluwer.
- National Resource Council (1992) Nuclear power: technical and institutional options for the future National Academy Press
- Pope, Daniel (2008). Nuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply SystemNuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply SystemNuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System is a 2008 book by Daniel Pope, a history professor at the University of Oregon, which traces the history of the Washington Public Power Supply System, a public agency which undertook to build five large nuclear power...
, Cambridge University Press. - Thomas, Steve D. (2010). The Realities of Nuclear Power: International Economic and Regulatory Experience Cambridge Energy Study - Cambridge University Press.
- Wellock, Thomas R.Thomas WellockThomas Wellock is the historian for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Trained as both an engineer and a historian, he writes scholarly histories of the regulation of commercial nuclear energy....
(1998). Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958-1978Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958-1978Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958-1978 is the first detailed history of the anti-nuclear movement in the United States, written by Thomas Wellock. It is also the first state-level research on the subject with a focus on California...
, The University of Wisconsin Press, ISBN 0299158500 - Wills, John (2006). Conservation Fallout: Nuclear Protest at Diablo CanyonConservation Fallout: Nuclear Protest at Diablo CanyonConservation Fallout: Nuclear Protest at Diablo Canyon is a 2006 book by John Wills.Widespread public opposition accompanied the rise of the U.S. nuclear industry during the 1960s and 1970s...
, University of Nevada Press.
External links
- List of known U.S. nuclear accidents from 1955 to 2000 lutins.org (June 22, 2010). Retrieved April 2, 2011