The Charlie Brown Syndrome

摘要

Since I started writing this column in 2000 I have frequently touted the possibility that a nuclear renaissance is just around the corner: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved several new reactor designs that could be built with minimal future licensing hassle; the Bush administration pushed through legislation to deal with nuclear waste and to help companies exercise the decade-old but still-untried "new" licensing process; and companies formed consortia to begin planning, designing, licensing and constructing new nuclear power plants. All was in order for the renaissance to begin. But now, seven years later, there is still no nuclear power renaissance.