America's nuclear industry in meltdown

Washington's Blog - Even though the American government has done everything possible to encourage nuclear power – by wholly subsidizing nuclear power, reducing safety standards after Fukushima, forcing Japan to re-start its nuclear program, covering up the severity of the Fukushima accident, raising acceptable radiation limits and agreeing to buy radioactive Japanese seafood – the so-called “nuclear renaissance” is over in the U.S. (and worldwide).

Duke Energy charged its ratepayers $1.5 billion dollars to build a nuclear power plant in Florida, and then pulled the plug … and refused to refund the money to its ratepayers.

An attempt to secretly ramp up production at the San Onofre plant in California caused massive problems at the plant. An internal letter reveals that the plant operator knew of defects at the crippled reactors … but misled federal regulators to get and expedited license. A judge has now permanently shut down the plant.

Virtually all other American nuclear rectors have suffered problem after problem, and plans for new plans have been mothballed.

The problem is that America’s nuclear reactors are old … and are falling apart piece by piece.

But – even after the Fukushima meltdown – regulators have reduced safety standards.

The Nuclear Regulator Commission say that the risk of a major meltdown at U.S. nuclear reactors is much higher than it was at Fukushima (and Fukushima is worse than ever.)

And an accident in the U.S. could be a lot larger than in Japan … partly because our nuclear plants hold a lot more radioactive material.