The Patriot Post® · Getting Serious About U.S. Nuclear Power

While concern over climate change has spurred popular demand for more “clean” energy sources such as wind and solar, it has also provided an opportunity to highlight a technology with benefits yet to be fully appreciated — nuclear power. Demonized by ecofascists, nuclear power remains the cleanest, most efficient, and consistent means of meeting the growing power needs of the nation. Currently, nuclear power supplies 20% of America’s energy needs, but that percentage could easily be increased, benefiting both the environment and Americans’ power costs.

Unfortunately, leftist politicians like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called for not only limiting nuclear power but eliminating it. Thankfully, this extremist position does not appear to be winning the day. In fact, under President Donald Trump’s leadership, America’s nuclear industry is getting a much-needed boost. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is now working to accelerate the development of advanced nuclear reactors.

Furthermore, as Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) writes at National Review, “In December of 2019, the NRC approved an early site permit for the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a small modular reactor at the Clinch River Site, in my district in Tennessee. In 2018, Congress passed and the president signed the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act, which eliminated financial and technological barriers that stood in the way of American nuclear innovation.”

Both China and Russia have been aggressively working to usurp American leadership on developing nuclear technology. Allowing either nation to become the world leader in nuclear technology would be a disaster for not just the U.S. but the world. Notwithstanding the Sanders-Warren-AOC trio, an encouraging development is growing bipartisan support in Congress for the U.S. to refocus efforts on maintaining our world leadership in nuclear development.