November 17, 2009 -  Nuclear is NOT Homegrown

During the recent S.C. gubernatorial debate, many of the candidates promoting new nuclear reactors characterized nuclear power as clean and homegrown.  I will de-bunk the clean part soon, but I want to start with this notion that nuclear is somehow "homegrown" because I heard Sen. Graham also use this adjective.

There is really nothing homegrown about nuclear power, except the nuclear waste that we generate and get stuck with.  Nuclear power relies on uranium as its fuel.  Right now, most of the uranium we use comes from Russia.  We have uranium reserves in this country, but our uranium ore is mostly low grade, requiring expensive enrichment.  Uranium mining in this country is akin to coal mining -- dirty, producing toxic waste, and deadly health effects on its workers.

Nuclear reactors are big plants with big components.  The reactor vessel which houses the fuel is a large single ingot unit, that we are unable to produce in this country. Since the demise of our steel industry, we no longer have forges large enough to make reactor vessels or the large steam generators used at nuclear plants.  We also purchase other main components from other foreign countries like Italy and Japan.  All of the money spent on big nuclear parts goes not only out of our state, but out of the country.

Even the reactor itself, the AP1000, whose current design has been rejected by the usually permissive Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is a foreign part, since Westinghouse is owned now by the Japanese company Toshiba.

During the recent hearing at the Public Service Commission, where SCE&G has already started asking for extensions to their schedule, I'm pretty sure I heard that only 37 local people were being employed in the current construction project.  I don't know if this will increase, but studies of other plants have shown that nuclear projects require skilled labor not often available in the area, so experts must be hired from outside the community.  These employees move to the area, bringing spouses and teenagers, who then themselves compete for local jobs and add stress to community services.

Nuclear may be many things, but homegrown it is not.  Once again, we are completely dependent on foreign sources of fuel, or risk running up the cost of nuclear by having to enrich our own supplies (nuclear is already exorbitantly priced at $5000/kw), and we must get in line with China and other countries to order and await key reactor components.  How is this remotely energy independence or homegrown?

Again, the only thing homegrown about nuclear power in South Carolina is the deadly radioactive waste we generate for which there is no solution, and which we will inherit as the toxic legacy of a completely now, unnecessary technology.  Better truly homegrown technologies, like our own GE produced wind turbines and our own free offshore wind resources would bring true homegrown energy independence to our state, instead of more foreign dependence on an expensive, dangerous and polluting energy source like nuclear.

Susan