Texas turned on its last nuclear reactor, approximately 50 miles southwest of Fort worth seventeen years ago. Several more reactors could get constructed here in another decade – if events in Washington D.C. go the power corporations’ way.

According to the Houston Chronicle, “nuclear power now accounts for 14 percent of Texas’s electricity usage (below the national average, 20 percent). The case for adding more reactors rests on a rising appetite for electricity sparked by a growing population and ever proliferating gadgetry. And proponents point out that nuclear power, unlike cool natural gas is virtually free of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with global warming during its operations, although environmentalists strongly dispute the merits of the plants.”

The federal government is taking the initiative with a program that offers loan guarantees for the plants, which is a vital step to placate financiers worried about the economic risks of building them.

“Earlier this month,” as reported by the Chronicle, “the Department of Energy agreed to a $3.4 billion guarantee for the expansion of a nuclear facility in Georgia, and the Obama administration recently asked Congress for more funds to help out more plants. Two proposed nuclear projects in Texas are high on the list of potential recipients.”

Jeff Simmons, who is leading the development efforts to add two new reactors to the Comanche Peak plant in Glen Rose, near Fort Worth, said, “we’re very serious about moving ahead.” His project is a joint venture between subsidiaries of Luminant, a big Texas power generator, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The corporations are seeking to obtain a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of 2012 – a vital green light for the plant.

To read the entire article from the Houston Chronicle, link here:

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