Fifty nuclear plants needed for 'hope and change'

"Nuclear power must maintain its 20% share of US power generation" if the country is to achieve president-elect Barack Obama's goals, said the chair of The Shaw Group, J M Bernard, at a gathering of power industry leaders on 9 December. With US electricity demand projected to grow 1.1 % annually, some 45 to 50 new nuclear power plants - in addition to the current fleet - will be needed by 2030 to maintain a 20% share of generation. Bernard sees a nuclear renaissance as a unique route to ensuring energy independence, a cleaner environment, a stable base load supply, and also achieving the economic revitalisation promised by Obama. He stated that it would "create an industry-driven jobs program unrivalled since the great infrastructure projects of President Franklin D Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration" not fuelled with deficit financing, but paid for with private capital and built by private citizens. Shaw Group is a global partner with Westinghouse for the construction of AP1000s power reactors.