Lobbyists’ Long Effort to Revive Nuclear Industry Faces New Test

[groovedaddy]

WASHINGTON — One flash point in the remarkable revival of interest in nuclear energy here — a revival now threatened by the calamity in Japan — came almost by accident at a late-night brainstorming session in a senator’s office in 1997.

Pete V. Domenici, then a Republican senator from New Mexico, was looking for an issue to claim as his own. One staff member, a former scientist at the Los Alamos nuclear lab, tossed out an idea that seemed dead on arrival: a renewed commitment to nuclear energy.

“Are you serious?” Mr. Domenici remembers asking the aide incredulously. After Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, nuclear energy had fallen into disfavor, development had stalled, and many politicians ran from the issue like it was a toxic cloud.

But with industry backing, Mr. Domenici overcame his skepticism and became one of the driving forces in a decade-long renaissance of nuclear energy — a resurgence that began in earnest under President George W. Bush and has led President Obama to seek a $36 billion expansion in loan guarantees to finance reactors at a time when other programs are being slashed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/us/25lobby.html?nl=todaysheadlines&adxnnl=1&emc=tha23&adxnnlx=1301068916-/pEXBnVJqEWTEKkY+fSCRw

[Turbineguy]

1. The future of nuclear is just about doomed.

Republicans and beancounters can be counted upon to make it more dangerous. Even the most intelligent teabaggers know that their lilly-white skin will not protect them from the effects of radiation.

The problem with nuclear power in the US is that it is a political problem more than an engineering problem.