It is perhaps worrying that an industry that employs one Homer Simpson is viewed as the solution to the US’s energy dilemma. Nuclear power – carbon-free and not reliant on fuel imports from unfriendly regimes – is enjoying a renaissance in the US, almost three decades after the last plant was commissioned.
High gas prices – which set the electricity price in most US regions – make new nuclear more competitive. Carbon charges would enhance that. Proposals for new plants imply a 28 per cent increase in America’s existing atomic fleet of 98 gigawatts.
