American ingenuity advanced nuclear technology to a world-class innovation to benefit all. Interestingly, the methods used in the rest of the world are copies of the American innovations.
Now, America seems to be fading into the wallpaper of greed and propaganda. It slinks to massive subsidies to support ancient power generated from breezes and sunshine, like wind and solar. America needs to reestablish its world-leading manifestation of this technology through our secret weapon called free enterprise.
To meet increasing demands for electricity, China, Russia, Japan, and Poland are building additional nuclear power-generated electricity, while the USA focuses on weather-dependent wind and solar.
Russia and China are currently leading the world in nuclear electricity generation and account for 70 percent of additional nuclear power capacity. Today, about 60 reactors are under construction across the world. A further 110 are planned.
Today, nuclear power generated electricity is being added around the world:
- The nuclear power systems developed for the Navy have functioned well for over seven decades. All U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered.
- France has more than 50 nuclear power reactors producing more than 70% of France’s electricity.
- Japan / New Energy Policy Will Set Nuclear Share Target Of 20% By 2040, Japan’s industry ministry is making final amendments to a policy that will significantly increase nuclear power from the estimated 8.5% that the reactor fleet provides today. Fourteen nuclear power plants have restarted in Japan since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Today, about 440 nuclear power reactors are in operation in 32 countries and Taiwan, with 62 new reactors under construction. As of August 1, 2023, the United States had 54 nuclear power plants with 93 operating commercial nuclear reactors in 28 states.
Nuclear power has the competitive advantage of being the only reliable, available, and clean power source that can accommodate the desired expansion of a clean electricity supply to the end users. In fact, nuclear power could supply all the capacity the US needs.
The United States invented and perfected nuclear power as early as the late 1940s. Are we willing to regress while other countries progress? To understand this concept better, let’s review the US nuclear energy development through the years.
As Nazi Germany began to eat away at civilization, the discovery of nuclear fission, the powerhouse of nuclear reactors, was coming of age. Like the uranium born from stardust as the ultimate energy storage, the secret to unlimited electric power for the world exploded upon the scientific community. You have heard of the heroes of this miracle: Curie, Einstein, Meitner, Hahn, Frisch, Bohr, Teller, Fermi, Oppenheimer, and many more. In a strange quirk of fate, the first use of nuclear fission came in the form of a bomb. As bad as war can be, it spurred the invention of radar, jet engines, and nuclear fission devices which all went on to make life better for humans. Nuclear fission became the flowers that grew after the thunderstorms of WWII....
Read the rest of this piece at America Out Loud.
Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for the Heartland Institute and CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book "Clean Energy Exploitations."
Photo: courtesy America Out Loud.
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