Mostly: Classical

[Sexton O Blake]

Nuclear and Beyond..

Just to clear it in my head...

Even in the United States, despite all the hand-wringing about nuclear power, the share of electricity generated by the nuclear has risen from just 4.5% in 1973 to over 20% today...making it the second most frequently used fuel source for producing electricity (after coal).

The article opened up a question - I thought since the meltdown of TMI-2, they banned all new reactors in the US.

Taken from "Short History of Nuclear Regulation, 1946-1999"
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Full Text

Licensing New Plants

The Chernobyl accident added a new source of concern to long- standing controversies over the licensing of several reactors in the United States. In the aftermath of Three Mile Island, the NRC had suspended the granting of operating licenses for plants that were in the pipeline. The "licensing pause" for fuel loading and low-power testing ended in February 1980. In August 1980 the NRC issued the first full-power operating license (to North Anna-2 in Virginia) since TMI. In the following nine years it granted full-power licenses to over forty other reactors, most of which had received construction permits in the mid-1970s. In 1985 it authorized the undamaged Three Mile Island Unit 1, which had been shut down for refueling at the time of the TMI-2 accident, to resume operation.

Basically most of the "20%" number above is probably based largely on the permits and approvals before the TMI2 disaster. I am still wondering phyically how many NEW plants, since the TMI2 disaster have been approved.

.. time to run though..

blake