Time to Build Reactors Fueled by Nuclear Waste

According to noted stock trader Ross Givens, many investors are pouring money into nuclear energy stocks that may never deliver. Innovative generation IV and V reactor designs remain unapproved by a slow-moving federal government. Yet investors remain hopeful that this bottleneck will soon be removed.

In the early years of America’s nuclear power industry, the Atomic Energy Commission was favorable to innovative technology and bullish on nuclear’s ability to power the future.

One minor incident, however, enabled the anti-nuclear crowd to have the AEC replaced by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission, whose mandate switched from using nuclear energy to protecting Americans from nuclear radiation. Their approach predated President Obama’s strategy for bankrupting the coal industry — regulations to make nuclear reactors so expensive that anyone trying to go nuclear would go bankrupt.

In May, President Trump issued an executive order calling for major reforms to the NRC, whose current structure and staffing, he said, are “misaligned with the Congress’ directive that the NRC shall not unduly restrict the benefits of nuclear power.” He wants an NRC that promotes expedited processing of license applications and adoption of innovative technology.

One tactic used by the NRC is the $300 per hour charge to applicants for reviewing applications. Coupled with a razor-like ability to “discover” separate “serious flaws” one at a time, the NRC process adds direct and indirect costs that discourage applicants.

The Vogtle units 3 and 4 in Georgia, the only two new U.S. reactors in the 21^st century, were supposed to cost about $14 billion from design to operational status but ended up costing $36.8 billion — plus revenues lost to the delayed approvals. Permitting for Tennessee’s Watts Bar unit 2, which became operational in 2016, began in 1972.

The White House believes NRC staffers have disregarded the severe domestic and geopolitical costs of risk aversion overkill — including safety models that, without sound scientific basis, claim there is no safe threshold of radiation exposure. This forces nuclear plants to protect against radiation below naturally occurring levels.