On January 26, the U.S. Department of Energy released the Fact Sheet, “The Energy Department Is Delivering on Accelerating the Deployment of Nuclear Power, subtitled “President Trump is Unleashing America’s Next Nuclear Renaissance.”
Nuclear Renaissance? Like that of Joe Biden? George W. Bush? Here is a summary of federal subsidies/initiatives for commercial nuclear power from the US Department of Energy (to date).
“Nuclear fission is the most complicated, fraught, expensive way to boil water to produce steam to drive electrical turbines.”
What U.S. industry is at once the most subsidized and regulated by the federal government? The answer is commercial nuclear power. As a result, the 73-year-old “Atoms for Peace” program represents the most expensive failure (malinvestment) in US business. potholed with uncompleted projects and massive cost overruns with completed projects. Future decommissioning costs will add to this liability.
But hyperbole rules with this technology, and there is always tomorrow. Forget that competitive viability did not emerge in the 1950s or 1960s, and George W. Bush and Joe Biden both failed at their attempted “nuclear renaissance.” Expect the same to result from today’s interventionist energy policy.
A future post will outline the crash attempt by President Trump and DOE secretary Chris Wright to get new nuclear capacity on track.…
“And you wonder why people are skeptical. [Bradley] made a comment. You disputed it. He provided support. You deflected and avoided the issue with a completely illogical statement. Oh, that’s right, you are a ‘journalist’.” ( – Mike Robinson to Elisa Wood, below)
Elisa Wood, writer and editor at Energy Changemakers, [1] posted:
A 75-year-old science group offers a new direction following the Trump administration’s climate rollback. Here’s why the plan features rooftop solar, batteries, microgrids and other forms of distributed energy.
I commented:
Rooftop solar? Those big companies (like Sunnova) have gone bankrupt and left customers with long-term contracts they do not like. It is a litigation paradise.
Wood: “Logical fallacy here. One company’s bankruptcy doesn’t damn a whole technology.”
Bradley: “Sunnova was the biggest.…