From Robert Bryce Substack
Nuclear energy is once again absent from the Democratic Party's platform. While China is accelerating its nuclear construction, nuclear energy has also disappeared. Additionally, radio and podcasts are also popular.
About 15 years ago, I visited a senior DOE official in his office in Washington. We chatted for 30 minutes and discussed the obstacles facing U.S. nuclear energy deployment, including Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations, supply chains, and the need for a stable fuel supply. Toward the end of our conversation, he said one of the biggest problems with nuclear power is that it requires bipartisan support in Congress. But that didn't happen because “Democrats were pro-government and anti-nuclear,” he said. Meanwhile, “Republicans are pro-nuclear and anti-government.”
To be clear, Democrats have recently become more outspoken in their support of nuclear energy. “We have to at least triple the current nuclear capacity in this country,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in June during an appearance at the Vogtel plant in Georgia, where there are two new 1-gigabyte nuclear reactors. Watt nuclear reactor has been put into service. Also in June, the Senate voted 88-2 to pass the Accelerating the Deployment of Multifunctional Advanced Clean Energy Nuclear Energy Act, which aims to speed up the federal approval and deployment of new reactors (via Democrats Ed Markey of Massachusetts and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont were the only senators to vote against the bill, which President Biden signed into law last month.
Passage of the ADVANCE Act (and Granholm's comments) would give the domestic nuclear energy industry a much-needed boost. But don't expect to hear the word “nuclear power” during the final two days of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. There is also no mention of nuclear energy in the just-released Democratic Party platform. Alas, this is not surprising.
The omission of nuclear power from the party platform is yet another sign that despite making climate change a top topic (the word “climate” appears 81 times in the 92-page platform), the Democratic Party remains firmly in power. NGO. Those groups, including the Sierra Club, NRDC and League of Conservation Voters, are integral to the party's fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts. These NGOs continue to insist that the United States can rely on alternative energy sources to run its economy. Therefore, the party's top leaders dare not risk alienating them.
In fact, as I explained in May , renewable energy fetishism dominates the left’s approach to energy. The word “solar” appears nine times in the party's platform, wind energy is mentioned twice, and “clean energy” – the catch-all marketing term that has become a multi-billion dollar enterprise under the Inflation Reduction Act Reasons for benefits — Appeared 44 times. (The word “Trump” appears 150 times!)
The omission of nuclear energy from the Democratic Party's 2024 platform means that nuclear power has only received one positive mention in its platform in the past 52 years. That mention occurred in 2020. Forbes:
It took five years for Democrats to finally change their stance on nuclear energy. In their recently released party platform, the Democrats said they favor a “technology-neutral” approach that would include “all zero-carbon technologies, including hydropower, geothermal energy, existing and advanced nuclear energy, and carbon capture and storage.” The statement marks the first time since 1972 that Democrats have made positive statements about nuclear energy in their platform. The change in policy is good news and long overdue for the U.S. nuclear energy industry and everyone concerned about climate change.
Before going any further, I must point out that Republicans are not vacillating on nuclear energy. The Republican Party mentions it only once in its 16-page platform, saying “Republicans will unleash energy production from all sources, including nuclear, to immediately cut inflation and deliver reliable, abundant, and reliable energy to American homes, cars, and factories.” Affordable energy”.
So why is this important? There are four reasons.
First, countries such as China have surpassed the United States in nuclear energy. Earlier this week, China announced it would spend $31 billion to build 11 new reactors over the next five years. New projects include a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor in Jiangsu Province. Since the end of World War II, the United States has been the world leader in nuclear technology. However, we now risk falling behind technologically in deploying new nuclear technologies. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, China is currently building 28.5 GW of new nuclear power capacity. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there are no reactors under construction in the United States.
Second, large-scale decarbonization of the global economy is impossible without nuclear power, and large amounts of it. Last December, at the COP28 in Dubai, the United States and more than 20 other countries signed a pledge to triple nuclear energy production by 2050. “Key Role” by 2050. The U.S. delegation led the push for countries to sign the declaration. So why aren’t Democrats promoting their efforts?
Pew's Aug. 5 report showed increased support for nuclear energy.
Third, although polls show a close race between Harris and Trump, a majority of Americans (about 56%) support nuclear energy. An Aug. 5 Pew Research Center poll found that support for nuclear energy has surged over the past four years:
Americans are still more likely to support expanding solar energy (78%) and wind energy (72%) than nuclear energy. However, while support for solar and wind power has declined by double digits since 2020 (largely due to declining Republican support), support for nuclear power has increased by 13 percentage points during that period.
Fourth, the bully pulpit is very important. If the United States is to revive its nuclear industry—an industry that has been in decline over the past three decades—the public needs to hear this from the country’s top leaders. Sadly, that didn’t happen at the Chicago convention. Given that nuclear energy is not in the Democratic platform, there is no reason to expect to hear anything about nuclear energy tonight or tomorrow night.
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