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Bad Faith Arguments for More Nuclear Power
Jeffrey Quackenbush
Abstract:
In the US, the decline of the nuclear industry has often been portrayed in
the media and in politics as a result of partisanship and public fear.
This essay argues that such claims, at least for the development of new
facilities, are being made in bad faith, and that the industry’s
problems have more to do with technical, logistical and market
difficulties that strain the financial viability of new projects. Because
markets in the electricity sector are regulated, political rhetoric can
have a significant, though diffuse, impact on market-making policies for
all potential new energy assets connected to the electric grid, and so it
is important that this rhetoric takes seriously the range of issues
involved. To encourage better sense-making, this article summarizes, at a
high level, the basic obstacles facing the development of new nuclear
power facilities in the US, including the fragmentation of electrical
markets, a failure to develop standardized designs, the slow pace of
technological innovation, limits imposed by distribution and transmission
systems, and troubles with waste and the environmental impacts of water
use and uranium mining.
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