ANS President Thomas Sanders's proposal to build small, "right-sized" nuclear reactors (AW, July 2009, p. 85) is a reminder of the Dresden-1, Yankee Rowe, and Peach Bottom-1 reactors, all built and paid for, but too small to be economical for operation inrnthe United States.rnU.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to build small solar electric generating stations is a reminder of the replacement by the good citizens of California of the large, 950-MWe Rancho Seco nuclear powerrnplant with a 2-MWe solar electric generating station. That's 2 MWe on a cloudless day in late June (0.2-0.4 MWe average during a year). The difference in the amount of electricity from the two facilities is about equal to that purchased by the state of California during a shortage of natural gas inrn2000-2001 to generate electricity. This pur-rnchase from state funds put California on a certain path to bankruptcy.
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