In the end, the U.S. nuclear power industry has been its own worst enemy by failing to aggressively campaign against the anti-nuke greens. Now its desperate anti-science, global warming pitch doesn’t even resonate with the warmists.
Former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford writes at the Guardian:
The renaissance story line was hard to resist. By early 2009, applications for 31 new reactors were pending at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The promises came garnished with tales of remorseful changes of heart from oft-obscure nuclear converts. With few exceptions, the news media – especially television, with its thirst for the short and the simple – fell for the rhetoric.
It is all in ruins now. The 31 proposed reactors are down to four actually being built and a few others lingering on in search of a licence, which is good for 20 years. Those four are hopelessly uneconomic but proceed because their state legislatures have committed to finish them as long as a dollar remains to be taken from any electric customer’s pocket. Operating reactors are being closed as uneconomic for the first time in 15 years.