Updated: 5/28/2009 6:49:05 AM
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee proposed building 100 new nuclear power plants over the next 20 years to solve short-term energy needs.
He made the announcement Wednesday at the Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit in Oak Ridge.
During the summitt, he said climate change may be the inconvenient problem, but nuclear power is the inconvenient answer.
He told participants the United States should build the plants to put the country on the path to clean energy independence.
America currently has 104 nuclear plants, including TVA's three plants-- Brown's Ferry, Sequoyah and Watts Bar.
He said this proposal would "double America's nuclear plants, which today produce 20 percent of all our electricity, but 70 percent of our pollution-free, carbon-free electricity."
Alexander said the way to both deal with global warming and keep people employed is to encourage the "nuclear reconnaissance." According to the senator, we should start making nuclear energy the backbone of a new industrial economy.
There are currently 17 proposals for 26 reactors before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Lamar said that number needs to increase way beyond that.
The senator has the support of U.S. Congressmen Zach Wamp and Lincoln Davis.
"We're still caught in a time warp on this issue of nuclear energy. I can't think of a single thing that would do more to stimulate the U.S. economy quickly than to carry out the recommendations that he [Alexander] makes today, " said Wamp.
Davis shared similar views on the issue. "We have to have that bridge from today to the next generation. That bridge is not that there, and I think nuclear energy could be part of that."
He is calling for the federal government to take a leading role in the research for the plant. Rate payers would fund the project.
The Oak Ridge National Lab could see some of those funds. The lab has researched ways to make the nuclear energy process cleaner. Currently, one of ORNL's biggest goals is eliminating the waste that is created when making nuclear energy.
"...Where we can reuse and re-extract the energy from the spent fuel so instead of it being a waste product--it's actually a supply for future energy," said Dr. Thom Mason, Director of ORNL.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy issued a statement this afternoon calling Alexander's plan "reckless."
"Nuclear power is the exact same it was in the 1950's," said Dr. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "It's the same technology, it hasn't really gotten any cleaner."
Smith believes Senator Alexander's plan could cost no less than $500 billion.
"Most of that should be invested in really working with people to squeeze more kilowatt hours and be more efficient," said Smith. "We also think cleaner technologies like biopower, solar, wind, geothermal, hydro...these are all things that can basically be done in the short-term faster than nuclear power and we think ultimately cleaner."
