Nuclear power is coming into focus in the United States as politicians from both sides seek to prolong and expand the energy type.
A growing number of politicians from both the Republican and Democrat parties are taking a new look at nuclear power, both extending existing reactors and building new ones.
It comes amid growing difficulty to meet clean energy goals, while there is a surging electricity demand.
But there are massive critics of the nuclear industry. They argue that a veneer of clean energy has not changed the concerns about nuclear power, including aging facilities that need costly improvements, and the challenge of disposing of nuclear waste. Another issue is the steep cost of new projects that are years late if they even reach completion.
Green energy experts warn that while nuclear power is referred to as “clean” energy, it is not a plausible alternative to renewable energy sources. Nuclear power is expensive, hazardous, and slow to build, they warn, as well as dangerous.
Climate experts and green energy experts are urging governments to instead back renewable energies, including wind and solar power.
The director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists, Edwin Lyman, said the nuclear industry “knows it does not have a good story to tell,” and that it is “plagued by the same issues.”
But in the U.S., a search for clean energy is giving nuclear power a spark. A bipartisan measure was introduced last year aimed at preserving and expanding nuclear energy.
In addition to that, the Biden administration has established a $6 billion fund to help troubled nuclear plant operators keep their reactors running and to make them more economically competitive against other, cheaper — and greener — options, like solar and wind.
In addition, the administration is providing an additional $2.5 billion for two projects that are supposed to demonstrate new nuclear technology, to be in Washington State and Wyoming.
But critics warn that the U.S. is falling for the same mistakes that it has fallen for over the last half-century,
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