NuStart Energy, the consortium of nuclear power companies that hope to buld a new nuke power plant in the U.S. have narrowed their list of potential sites to six communities.
I happen to be among the diehards who believe that more nuclear power plants are not the answer to our hoggish energy comsumption problem (I think the "choice" between burning more coal or building nuke plants is a false one), but I know that there are a sizable number of folks who frequent this site who are on board with building more of these things.
Four of the six are at sites that already have nuke plants on them. The other two are owned by the DoE, the overseer of all things atomic in this country. I'm guessing that the consortium sees these choices as fairly safe bets since they are already sort of national sacrifice areas.
And the finalists are:
Scottsboro, Ala. The Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, an unfinished site owned by the U.S. government's Tennessee Valley Authority.
Port Gibson, Miss. The Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, owned by Entergy.
St. Francisville, La. The River Bend Station, owned by Entergy.
Aiken, S.C. The Savannah River Site, a U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons lab.
Lusby, Md. The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant, owned by Constellation Energy.
Oswego, N.Y. The Nine Mile Point plant, owned by Constellation Energy.
A bit more from the MSNBC story
"A nuclear power plant hasn't been built in the United States in two decades, but that could change in the next few years after a consortium announced locations in six states as possible sites for a nuclear renaissance.
...
"The consortium, which hopes to work on two advanced plant designs, said it expects to name the two finalists by October."
..
"The U.S. nuclear industry has been virtually frozen since the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. No company has followed through with plans to build a new nuclear plant since the accident.
However, President Bush has backed renewed construction of nuclear plants as part of his energy policy."
One thing is for sure, regardless of where one stands on this issue, it will be most interesting to see how this plays out.