Nuclear Jobs Outlook Hinges on Advanced Designs’ Success, Existing Plants

Photo: In October 2018, workers clear debris from a house destroyed by Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. Hurricane recovery work has increased competition for construction workers, making it more difficult for the nuclear construction industry to hire people. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) The U.S. nuclear industry faces a reckoning over whether existing nuclear plants …

China’s nuclear reactor building spree

Chinese officials say the nation’s humming economy means that no fewer than eight, million-kilowatt class nuclear reactors must enter service each year to help keep the nation’s electricity supply in pace with demand, while not adding more pollutants to the already fragile environment. China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd. General Manager Liu Wei told reporters …

Trump’s energy budget makes coal and nuclear a priority over renewables

President Trump’s fiscal 2020 budget energy priorities emphasize coal, nuclear and national security over renewable energy and climate change. The Energy Department’s renewable energy office’s budget is slashed by 70 percent, from $2.3 billion to just under $700 million, in the new fiscal 2020 budget request to Congress rolled out on Monday. Instead, the funds …

Uranium Week: Even More Complicated

Congress has now weighed into the 232 debate, potentially further delaying a decision from the White House. Congress moves to curb presidential power Uncertainty constraining uranium market volumes Last week the chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee, Republican Charles Grassley, directed his staff to work with senators on both sides of the aisle to …

The nuclear necessity

Many Americans, including me, had our views of nuclear power strongly shaped by the 1979 film The China Syndrome. This polemic’s alarming message was amplified when the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred just days after its release. Splitting uranium atoms to generate electricity had once been touted as a miraculous solution to the world’s …