Nuke growth seen as industry turns 50

[Township75]

Rapidly escalating natural gas prices have brought on a resurgence in the nuclear industry, which could have the next generation of nuclear power plants up and running by 2014, industry executives and engineers said Tuesday.
The nuclear industry is celebrating its 50th anniversary in Pittsburgh this week at the 50th annual meeting of the LaGrange Park, Ill.-based American Nuclear Society, which is being billed as "A Golden Anniversary -- A Golden Opportunity." Yesterday, officials talked about opportunities to increase the industry's 20 percent share of the domestic energy generation market with new technologies.

"There are forecasts that the world's population could double in the next 50 years, and that means energy demand could double, or even triple, during that time," said Dan Keuter, a vice president with Entergy Nuclear. "We're probably going to use more energy in the next 50 years than we have in all of mankind's history."

SNIP

Central to NuStart's new plant design will be Westinghouse's AP 1000 reactor, an update of the company's reactor technology that is in widespread use around the world. Jack Allen, a senior vice president for Westinghouse, said the new reactor increases output by 80 percent but cost by only 20 percent when compared to its predecessor.

Full story here:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/business/s_199011.html

[NNadir]

1. I predict that by the late 21st century, assuming the planet survives,

indeed, as one of the only paths to human survival, much better than 75% of the world's energy capacity will be nuclear. This is the best possible outcome for humanity, and our last best hope.

That said, I'm hoping that the percentage of (fission, at least) nuclear will drop in subsequent centuries.

[Township75]

2. Until other means are well developed...

I would really like to see nuclear replace coal...the things coal has done to my part of the country. Other than jobs, it has been horrible.