“Since its 2009 formation under Obama, ARPA-E within the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded about $4.2 billion to some 1,700 energy projects. The latest nuclear revival continues a long string of starts-and-stops for a technology that has been more promise than performance.”

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and the White House appear to be headed for a clash on major DOE spending programs, including the agency’s Loan Programs Office and the main research arm, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-Energy).

Last week, DOE earmarked another $57.8 million in federal money to the Palisades nuclear plant resurrection in Michigan, part of a $1.52 DOE billion loan to Holtec International for the project.

Since DOE’s Loan Programs Office approved the deal last September, the agency has doled out almost $96 million for the restart of the 805-MW reactor that shut down in 2022, starting with $38 million this January.…

“Absolutely I think they should build another [nuclear plant], because I think they’ll get better at it, It’s the cleanest energy you can possibly have out there, and we’re gonna need a tremendous increase in energy production.” [Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), quoted in Politico. June 27, 2024]

Nuclear power is a government-created and government-enabled industry. It was born of government largesse and regulatory favor, led by these five policies:

• Federal research & development by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC, founded 1946)
• The Price-Anderson Act of 1957 limit on accident liability
• Five years of ‘free’ enriched uranium from AEC
• Federal jawboning to parties to construct plants
• State utility commissioners granting rate-base status for new plants

Nuclear’s history of cost overruns, construction delays, and in-progress cancellations speaks for itself. Suffice it to say that the free market would have never allowed this industry to jump from military applications to civilian ones.…

Ed. Note: The news about nuclear is not good, which has been true for the last 70 years. Kennedy Maize at the Quad Report has the latest.

Holtec Decommissioning Scandal (800 MW Palisades)

New Jersey-based Holtec International on January 30th  agreed to pay its home state a $5 million fine in order to avoid criminal prosecution for falsifying documents related to a 2018 state-awarded tax break program.

The development in New Jersey could scuttle widespread rumors, most likely spread by Holtec, that the U.S. Department of Energy is about to loan the company $1.5 billion for its project to recommission the shuttered 800-MW Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan. Bloomberg first reported the rumor, commenting that the DOE loan would be “the latest sign of strengthening federal government support for the atomic industry.”…

“I assume you think the earth is flat and dinosaurs never existed and the sun rotates around the earth and vaccines don’t work? I mean, since science isn’t real…” (Durand to Bradley)

“The ‘settled science’ is toward the benefits of CO2 fertilization. The middle-way science in the face of climate models and other uncertainties is global lukewarming, with positives as well as negatives.” (Bradley to Durand)

Patty Durand is a candidate for the Georgia Public Service Commission special election. She is rightly critical of Plant Vogtle #3 and #4 but falls off the cliff when it comes to climate alarmism and forced energy transformation. Patty is in the tank of the climate industrial complex, the sea of cronies not unlike her enemy, Georgia Power Company (Southern Company). [1]

Our exchange began with her post that began:

Do you care about climate change?