Conducted
on: August 1, 2008
The U.S. couldn’t function without its 100+ operating nuclear power plants, but age issues could force many of them to reduce output or shut down completely over the next several years, warns electric utility expert Dan Scotto in Part 3 of his four-part exclusive video news report with EnergyTechStocks.com.
Scotto warned during the interview that because most of these plants are nearing or at the end of their 30-year economic lives, they are experiencing greater embrittlement, spent fuel and other operating problems that no one in Washington wants to talk about because of the economic devastation that could occur should 10 or more plants be forced to shut down, which Scotto fears could happen before any new nuclear power plants have been built.
Scotto further fears that if plants were forced to shut down, financial support on Wall Street for a new generation of nuclear power plants would be severely undercut, leaving the U.S. in even greater danger of a devastating shortfall in electrical power to meet the nation’s rapidly rising demand for electricity.
Washington’s current policy is “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” Scotto said during the interview. Eventually, he added, Washington will be forced to do something, though whether it will be too late is an open question.
At present, nuclear power accounts for nearly 20% of the U.S.’s total electrical generation capacity, second only to coal, which accounts for roughly 50%.