Nuclear Power Resurging In the US

While many prattle on about alternative energy technologies as one solution to reducing our dependence upon foreign sources of oil while reducing carbon release, while simultaneously working to prevent them from being implemented anywhere near where those very same 'proponents' happen to reside, one organization is actually doing something to expand the electricity supply. What's more, they won't be releasing any more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere while they do it.

The TVA, or Tennessee Valley Authority has refurbished and brought four of its nuclear power plants back on line, with another just finishing a $1 billion overhaul which is due to restart in late May.

Apparently the TVA has seen the wisdom of restarting its nuclear power plants. It's also planning on restarting yet another as well.

TVA shut Browns Ferry-1, along with all of its nuclear units, in 1985. It has gradually brought four units back online and completed construction of a fifth, but rehabilitation of Unit 1, the oldest and the one needing the most work, was in question until the TVA board approved a five-year plan in 2002.

Despite all the hoopla and hype about alternative energy projects, too many of them will never be built due to local opposition because “they're an eyesore/will kill too many birds/are a conspiracy by Big Wind/etc.” The TVA has led the way by dusting off and rebuilding existing non-polluting power plants, planning even more plants, and in the mean time added thousands of megawatts of needed capacity to a nation using ever more energy to fuel our high-tech society.

It makes me wonder whether the present owner of the Seabrook, New Hampshire nuclear plant should consider completing the abandoned Unit II. Goodness knows we could use the energy.