America’s Nuclear Future
Nobelist Burton Richter on Why the US is Falling Behind
When it comes to nuclear energy, Dr. Burton Richter
is Mr. Credible. Winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for discovering a new
sub-atomic particle, Richter has advised presidents and policymakers for
almost 40 years. Richter has been a Breakthrough Senior Fellow since
2011, and is technical adviser to the forthcoming documentary, "Pandora's Promise," about pro-nuclear environmentalists.
Breakthrough interviewed Richter recently to get his opinion on next generation nuclear reactors, and why so many of them are being developed abroad and not by the Department of Energy in the United States. "The DOE is too screwed up to go into a partnership and do this in the US," the blunt Richter told us, referring to the Bill Gates-backed nuclear design pursued in China by Terrapower.
Is DOE really to blame? In the end, Richter told us it was partisan polarization that was the problem. "George W. Bush actually had a good thing on next generation nuclear," Richter said. "When the Obama people came in all the Gen IV activities were stopped. With a system that keeps changing its priorities every few years, the [National DOE] Labs are pretty demoralized. The French have a long-term plan. The Koreans, the Chinese, the Russians have it. We don't have it. That's not the fault of the labs, that's the fault of the administrations."
And that's the fault, we might add, of irrational environmentalist and progressive fears of nuclear energy — something "Pandora's Promise" hopes to change
Read morehttp://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/programs/energy-and-climate/americas-nuclear-future/
Breakthrough interviewed Richter recently to get his opinion on next generation nuclear reactors, and why so many of them are being developed abroad and not by the Department of Energy in the United States. "The DOE is too screwed up to go into a partnership and do this in the US," the blunt Richter told us, referring to the Bill Gates-backed nuclear design pursued in China by Terrapower.
Is DOE really to blame? In the end, Richter told us it was partisan polarization that was the problem. "George W. Bush actually had a good thing on next generation nuclear," Richter said. "When the Obama people came in all the Gen IV activities were stopped. With a system that keeps changing its priorities every few years, the [National DOE] Labs are pretty demoralized. The French have a long-term plan. The Koreans, the Chinese, the Russians have it. We don't have it. That's not the fault of the labs, that's the fault of the administrations."
And that's the fault, we might add, of irrational environmentalist and progressive fears of nuclear energy — something "Pandora's Promise" hopes to change
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