Despite growing recognition that nuclear energy may be the most viable solution in America’s quest for reliable lowcarbon electricity, the nuclear power industry is struggling to overcome major hurdles; among them, what to do with radioactive, spent fuel.
Overcoming legal hurdles
But new efforts to recycle nuclear waste in the United States, held up for decades by legal and regulatory hurdles, could resolve that issue and more if it is allowed to flourish, reports The Epoch Times.
Nuclear energy has been stifled for the past 50 years by bureaucratic hurdles that have virtually stalled the construction of new nuclear plants in America. These stem from public fears following the reactor meltdowns at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima, as well as from concerns about the toxicity of used nuclear fuel and its potential reuse in nuclear weapons.
Recently, however, a rare bipartisan consensus has emerged in support of nuclear power. Speaking at the 29th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 29), the summit’s host Jeyhun Bayramov called for “the safe, secure, equitable, and affordable expansion of nuclear energy,” confirming that environmentalists now see nuclear energy as acceptably “clean,” alongside wind and solar. But reviving America’s dormant nuclear power industry is another matter.
In terms of priorities, “there exists the threat of climate [change] on the Democratic side, and certainly energy security, geo-strategic [concerns], Russia, and China from the Republican side, that now we see commitments to triple nuclear by the United States and COP 29, along with 20 other countries,” Ed McGinnis, CEO of Curio, a company that plans to recycle fuel in America, said.
Nuclear fuel, which takes the form of small ceramic pellets composed of enriched uranium-235 and uranium-238, powers reactors for five years before it is spent. Only about 4 per cent of the material is used in the fission process.
