Testifying before the Senate this week, Energy Secretary Steven Chu obliquely blamed the nuclear industry for its lack of progress.
Chu said the nuclear industry must show that it,
“… can build reactors in a timely manner, on budget and on time.”
What? Does he really believe the reason that there’s been no new nukes in more than 30 years is because the industry can’t poor concrete fast enough?
You mean it’s not the anti-nuclear activists who use the courts and byzantine regulatory process to block nuke plant construction at every turn?
You mean it’s not the Obama administration that pulled the plug on the Yucca Mountain respository for spent nuclear fuel?
You mean it’s not the EPA which slowed progress at Yucca Mountain to a crawl, including by requiring that the Department of Energy certify the security of stored spent fuel for one million years?
Earth to Chu…
In business friendly China Westinghouse and Areva can build a new nuclear plant in under 4 years, and new coal plants take only a few months to build there.
With our regulations and the constant opposition from green groups, it can take five times as long and cost twice as much. Green groups are right now actively working to shut down several existing nuclear plants. The reasons vary from a litany of silly arguments (“Yucca mountain is only safe for 1000 years instead of 10000 years”) to protecting fish in the Hudson river from hot cooling water.