Nuclear Power

We've heard reports about enthusiasm for growing the use nuclear power in the United States. Here are two indications that something really is happening.

1. The Republican-controlled Assembly (House of Representatives) in Wisconsin is debating a bill that would lift the state's de facto moratorium on new nuclear power facilities. The 1983 law law outlaws the construction of new plants unless taxpayers would save money and a federal waste repository is operating. Should the bill pass the Assembly, Wisconsin Senate promises to not debate it, much less pass it. Still, the fact that the bill is getting a hearing in the Assembly is a big change.

- Wisconsin State Journal 2/29/08

2. In Iowa, land of the hallowed ethanol subsidies, 57 members of the House are co-sponsoring a bill to allow nuclear energy projects to hit the state government for millions of dollars in state grants. Iowa recently scored a Google data center and hopes to attract one from rival Microsoft. A stable and ample supply of affordable power is considered a key to such growth. 

- Dubuque Telegraph Herald 3/2/08

While the relevance of these actions to New Mexico is distant at best, more nuclear plants will eventually mean demand for New Mexico's uranium, should producers ever be able to get through the state bureaucracy and actually produce.