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I was disappointed to read in the news that recent attempts to overturn explicit or effective nuclear power bans failed in six states. West Virginia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Wisconsin upheld new nuclear power plant bans in 2009. This comes at a time when the NRC is considering licensing applications for new plants in 14 states. West Virginia has an effective ban under which certain conditions have to be met in order to begin construction on a new nuclear power plant. The following West Virginia stipulation is taken from an article discussing nuclear plant bans:
“The code requires at least 24 months’ prior operation of a national facility which safely, successfully and permanently disposes of any and all radioactive wastes associated with operating any such nuclear power plant, nuclear factory or nuclear electric power generating plant.”
Of course now that Yucca Mountain has lost federal support the development of such a repository seems unlikely in the near future.
The first ban on new nuclear plants was instated in California. Twelve states now ban the construction of new nuclear plants. Many bans were developed shortly after Three Mile Island. Improvements in operation and reliability in existing plants have since proven that nuclear power provides safe, clean, CO2 free energy. These bans come despite the increasing support shown by the general public for nuclear power as reported in an earlier blog post.
Residents in states with new nuclear power bans need to make their legislators aware that they support nuclear as a clean baseload power alternative to greenhouse gas emitting energy sources such as coal and natural gas.
