As President Obama pushes forward to revive the nuclear power industry, amid mounting concerns by environmentalists, a new type of small reactor is entering the market.



These new reactors, "smaller than a rail car and one-tenth the cost of a big plant," can be built quickly, installed at dozens of nuclear sites or can replace coal-fired plants, reports The Wall Street Journal today.

"We see significant benefits from the new, modular technology," Donald Moul, vice president of nuclear support for First Energy, an Ohio-based utility company, says in the story.

The small Babcock & Wilcox reactor, which generate 125 to 140 megawatts of power -- about a tenth as much as a big one, has not yet been approved for U.S. commercial use by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC.)

On Wednesday, three major utilities -- Tennessee Valley Authority, First Energy Corp. and Oglethorpe Power Corp. -- signed an agreement with Babcock & Wilcox, committing to get NRC's approval, according to the story.



This development comes as Obama announced Monday $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees for two new large reactors in Burke, Ga. -- the first new nuclear power construction in the United States in three decades.

Obama's call for a "new generation" of nuclear power plants and his proposal to triple loan guarantees to help build them are generating opposition from environmentalists who once welcomed him.

"We were hopeful last year; he was saying all the right things," Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, whose political arm endorsed Obama's candidacy for president, says in a New York Times story today. "But now he has become a full-blown nuclear power proponent, a startling change over the last few months."

Obama knows his policies are alienating some environmentalists. Still, he says nuclear power has to be part of the U.S. energy future, because it does not emit greenhouse gases. In announcing the loan guarantees, he said:

Now, there will be those that welcome this announcement, those who think it's been long overdue. But there are also going to be those who strongly disagree with this announcement. The same has been true in other areas of our energy debate, from offshore drilling to putting a price on carbon pollution. But what I want to emphasize is this: Even when we have differences, we cannot allow those differences to prevent us from making progress.

As both a senator and a presidential candidate, Obama has long supported nuclear power. The New York Times, citing data from the Center for Responsive Politics, reports that employees of the Exelon Corp., the Chicago-based utility that is the largest operator of nuclear plants in the United States, have been among his biggest campaign donors, giving more than $330,000 over his career.

Obama has repeatedly promoted energy efficiency and renewable energy such as solar and wind. His Recovery Act includes $90 billion for clean energy projects.

Readers: Is Obama losing his eco-credentials? Are small nuclear reactors the answer to his nuclear call?

source: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/...-emerges/1