Obama Sees the Light on Nuclear Power

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama finally ... finally ... acknowledged a fact many Americans have known for years: that nuclear power is essential to this nation’s future.

On Tuesday, the president announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for two nuclear power plants in Georgia that Southern Co. is proposing to build. The earliest they could be operational would be 2016 and 2017.

What is so significant about this step is that these two plants would be the first nuclear power facilities to be built in the United States in more than 30 years, following the Three Mile Island accident in the late 1970s.

In the State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress back in January, there was one promise — out of many — that signalled a shift in thinking in the White House toward nuclear power.

Speaking to Congress, the president embraced the goal of “building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear plants in this country.” And earlier this month, Obama put his money where his mouth was, upping the pool of federal dollars to support nuclear energy from about $17 billion to more than $54 billion.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., has been at the forefront of the push in Congress for an expanded role for nuclear power. Webb, who’s made several trips to Lynchburg to visit Areva and Babcock & Wilcox, has looked at the numbers. He knows that, if America’s power consumption trends continue on the current trajectory, nuclear simply has to be part of the equation. And with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., he’s been a constant force in Congress pushing for the industry.

Environmentalists, a key Democratic constituency, have been vociferous opponents of nuclear power for decades, attempting to portray the industry in the most derogatory of terms and with the most disgusting of scare tactics. But now, climate change has become a wedge, splitting many in the movement. Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, broke with his fellow environmentalists in 2006 when he backed nuclear power as the ultimate green power that could quickly counter greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuels.

There are several other nuclear plants across the country in various stages of planning, including an additional reactor Dominion Power of Virginia is planning for its North Anna site.

But as important as the federal loan guarantee program is — and $54 billion is nothing to sneeze at, the more important hurdle that Washington needs to address is the regulatory one.

In the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) must give final approval to any nuclear plant, and the approval process can be painstakingly slow. According to news reports, the NRC currently has 18 applications, for a total of 28 units, in the agency pipeline. As structured now, the approval process can take years.

The president’s now given his vocal support and Washington’s financial support to the nuclear power renaissance. It’s time for him to step up to the plate and propose the regulatory overhaul to propel nuclear power to the forefront of green energy in the 21st century.