Clean Energy for the Future

Recent stories about leaks of radioactive water from aging nuclear plants, around Chicago and elsewhere have continued to scare the public off from any consideration of expanding nuclear power. NY Times:

With power cleaner than coal and cheaper than natural gas, the nuclear industry, 20 years past its last meltdown, thinks it is ready for its second act: its first new reactor orders since the 1970's.

But there is a catch. The public's acceptance of new reactors depends in part on the performance of the old ones, and lately several of those have been discovered to be leaking radioactive water into the ground.

Near Braceville, Ill., the Braidwood Generating Station, owned by the Exelon Corporation, has leaked tritium into underground water that has shown up in the well of a family nearby. The company, which has bought out one property owner and is negotiating with others, has offered to help pay for a municipal water system for houses near the plant that have private wells. In a survey of all 10 of its nuclear plants, Exelon found tritium in the ground at two others......

A spokesman for Exelon, Craig Nesbit, said that neither Godley's water nor Braidwood's water system was threatened, but that the company had lost credibility when it did not publicly disclose a huge fuel oil spill and spills of tritium from 1996 to 2003. No well outside company property shows levels that exceed drinking water standards, he said.....

Tritium, a form of hydrogen with two additional neutrons in its nucleus, is especially vexing. The atom is unstable and returns to stability by emitting a radioactive particle. Because the hydrogen is incorporated into a water molecule, it is almost impossible to filter out. The biological effect of the radiation is limited because, just like ordinary water, water that incorporates tritium does not stay in the body long.But it is detectable in tiny quantities, and always makes its source look bad.

So the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is considering applications for nuclear reactors in the US for the first time since 1973, has got to be on top of this issue with strict enforcement:

As the agency prepares to review license applications for the first time in decades, it is focusing on "materials degradation," a catch-all term for cracks, rust and other ills to which nuclear plants are susceptible. The old metal has to hold together, or be patched or replaced as required, for the industry to have a chance at building new plants, experts say.

At the same time, the nuclear industry needs a stable, responsible regulatory environment to encourage investment in plant upgrades and new plants, which takes an enormous amount of capital. Litigation by grandstanding state Attorneys General at what appear to be minor, though wrongly concealed, infractions are not helpful for the long term. Let us hope that in Illinois, this case will clear the deck for more honesty and less litigation in the future development of nuclear power in the state.
We have got to tackle this issue. We do not have enough domestic oil capacity, for a number of reasons. Any serious, responsible discussion of energy independence must include nuclear power. Now I am not one to look to France as a leader on anything, but they do have extensive nuclear facilities which provide a majority of their power. Recently, we concluded an historic agreement with India to mutually advance our development of CLEAN (nuclear) ENERGY. Americans do not want to be held hostage to energy blackmail.