The first US nuclear reactor to come online in the last 20
years is in the Tennessee Valley Authority. Watts Bar 2 came in 6.5 Billion
dollars over budget, allegedly due to nuclear regulation.
Of course, no one from CNN to the LA Times to Forbes backs that
up. Everyone seems hung up on the 20-year construction delay. Watts Bar 1, a sister reactor, went online in
1996 and it took almost nine years to build Watts Bar 2. You’ll find a lot of
sprawling think-pieces which provide these basic facts, generously padded with
timeline of nuclear disasters from Three Mile Island to Chernobyl and ending in
Fukushima.
News articles on the subject seem authoritative until they
describe the iconic cooling towers used to remove excess heat as “reactors.”
Everyone is quick to bemoan the cultural insecurity which caused nuclear
decline, whether it’s coded as regulatory smothering, environmental
hyperactivism, or investment cowardice.
Really though, the focus should be the loss of technical
literacy which makes supporters and opponents of nuclear power incapable of
speaking intelligently on the subject at all.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-america-s-newest-nuke-plant-20151011-column.html
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rodadams/2016/10/19/watts-bar-is-now-commercial/#30966e7222c9
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