Nancy Spring, Editor of Nuclear Power International, presents a piece titled “Shovels in the Ground,” which offers a world tour of ongoing nuclear energy projects. Among other projects in China, India, and Japan, she highlights the AREVA EPR plants being built at the Flamanville site in France and at Olkiluoto in Finland. She goes on to write:
Based on that roster of projects alone, the argument could easily be made that the debate about whether the nuclear renaissance is happening has been decided. And while there’s a big difference between “having plans” and pouring concrete—which at Flamanville 3 can be 200 tonnes per hour from the onsite concrete plant—if the plans for future nuclear projects that many countries have developed are added into the equation, the renaissance is already in full swing.
The question in the U.S. then becomes when to participate.
She ends her piece with a warning:
Many scholars and historians consider the Renaissance of the 1400s as the period when modern science began. Like those in that era who did not embrace the new concepts, the U.S. could choose to not take part in the nuclear renaissance. Would we then be saying “no” to science? The U.S., with its ambivalence toward nuclear power, may remain in the Dark Ages when it comes to energy.
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