Rick Perry Promotes Nuclear Power During US "Energy Week"

US Energy Secretary Rick Perry said this week that he wants to “make nuclear energy cool again” for young people.

The Trump administration has designated this week as “Energy Week” in the US, and is dedicating time to selling the president’s energy agenda to the American people.
US Energy Secretary Rick Perry told reporters on Tuesday (June 27) that the country will become a net exporter of energy through natural gas and oil exports, but also called on the country to “reaffirm [its] commitment to clean energy,” including nuclear power. “No clean energy portfolio is truly complete without nuclear power,” he said.
Perry did not provide exact details about how the US Department of Energy (DOE) will support the nuclear industry in light of the recent bankruptcy of reactor builder Westinghouse, but did say the DOE wants to “make nuclear energy cool again” to young people who want to study it. He added that the industry has been “strangled all too often by government regulations.”

The uranium industry suffered a downturn after the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster of 2011, and U3O8 spot prices have hovered around $20 per pound this year. Despite those market challenges, the US is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power. US nuclear energy accounts for over 30 percent of worldwide nuclear generation of electricity, according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA).
America has 100 nuclear reactors with another four under construction that are expected to come online by 2021. As outlined in the WNA’s World Nuclear Performance Report 2017, a third of the nuclear reactors under construction worldwide are located in China. In 2016, the world saw the largest increase in global nuclear capacity in 25 years.

Rick Perry on nuclear repository project

As the US nuclear industry continues to advance, the government is taking steps to solve the country’s nuclear waste management problem. During congressional testimony last week, Perry advocated for the funding of the Nevada-based Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. On Wednesday (June 28), the US House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 49 to four approve a bill to advance the project, which would see nuclear waste from decommissioned reactors transported away from reactor sites to the proposed repository. The project has been in the works for 30 years and has faced fierce opposition from Nevada officials. There are also plans to create a temporary dump site in New Mexico or Texas.
The highlight of Energy Week is expected to be an “American Energy Dominance” panel discussion on Thursday (June 29) with Perry, Trump, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. The panel will be followed by a speech from Trump.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Shaw, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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The Conversation (2)

anthony barbuto

30 Jun, 2017

The age of Oil is over. We reached Peak Oil ( when ever, the date we reached it is still being debated...) and we are now in the Solar Age.....The age of Nuclear energy is also over....Nuclear is a failure.....We have had an "industry" since 1947, yet we still can't dispose of the nuclear waste?!....This is not an industry, this is the military industrial companies, being subsidized by the gov't at tax payer expense. No nuclear plant has ever been built on time and on budget...I will state this again...no nuclear plant has ever been built on time and on budget. They have all lapsed into the red ink, and the gov't has allowed them to continue....just to finish the project....We have had "three strikes and you are out...!!!."..1) Three Mile Island....2) Chernobyl and 3) Fukushima....Do we need a nuclear plant to be taken over by ISIS terrorists or have a plant completely melt down ( like Fukushima has melted down)......before the light comes on and we realize...." nuclear power is NOT the way to go?"...!!!!....On Long Island, New York, ONE BILLION dollars was spent on the Shoreham NY nuclear plant. It finally reached 10% power generation when public opinion finally said ....what every resident of Long Island already knew....that you CANNOT evacuate 7 million people ( from Long Island)...if a nuclear plant went wild !.....It then took another ONE BILLION dollars to dismantle the nuclear plant.....If you read the books " Atomic Accidents" you will learn that NO NUCLEAR plant is safe. Every one of them has had accidents......graphite pile, water cooled, air cooled....etc....In fact one of the USN officers who responded to a nuclear accident was Lt. Jimmy Carter. Perhaps this is why ....in the 1970s...under the OPEC oil embargo, President Jimmy Carter did not urge the USA to investigate nuclear power as an alternative to oil. Jimmy had his experience, cleaning up a nuclear disaster ( its in the book..." Atomic Accidents").......Nuclear power is in the hands of the military industrial powers....Its time for a change...( read...." The Wrong stuff".......how Nasa has lied to the public about the dangers of nuclear powered satellites....)....Its time to go solar.....Elon Musk has shown us the way. By building reusable rockets at 300 times less costly than military industrial complex companies bid ( per Space.com article).....Musks SpaceX can get us to launch solar satellites economically into LEO. We can some day make the promise of solar power, as described in Dr Eugene Oniels books " High Frontier" and "Colonies in space", a reality....By using the same rockets to launch earth bound people to Mars, usiing Dr Robert Zubrins " Mars Direct" plan ( read the book..." The Case for Mars").......we further reduce the cost of launching payloads into space, and we can become a two planet species. We may have to go to Mars, if we continue poluting the earth with nuclear waste, as we are doing with the Fukushima nuclear disaster....Accoding to scientists, in the 13 minute presentation by the group, Anonymous, the power company in Japan, " does not have a clue"....how to deactivate the ruined nuclear plants at Fukushima. It s estimated the work will take 20-30 years and cost BILLIONS of dollars.....Clean solar energy vs. Nuclear.....I would say the oil age is over and so is the age for nuclear power....GO SOLAR....!!!!!!!!...On to Mars...!!!!