U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) recently released a plan to build one hundred new nuclear reactors across the country within the next 20 years, telling the Energy Secretary that “we should be as aggressive about expanding nuclear power. . .as we are with wind and solar.” The $700 billion proposal would double the number of nuclear reactors in the U.S. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy called the plan “unfortunate” and “expensive.”
“This is more a program of corporate welfare for big power companies and the nuclear industry,” said Dr. Stephen A. Smith, executive director for the SACE. “This industry continues to ignore the long-term negative ramifications of increasing our nation’s reliance on an energy technology that threatens current consumers and future generations with high price tags and mounds of radioactive waste.”
