Nuclear power in the United States
In the United States ( U.S. ) are located with 100 more nuclear reactors (65 pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors 35 ) in operation than in any other country. In summary, in nuclear power plants at 61 locations provided these power plants in the year 2008, around 20 percent of the electric current. So far, 32 reactors were shut down ( as of December 31, 2013), will follow in the coming years, at least two more - early shutdown of Vermont Yankee end of 2014 and end of 2019 Oyster Creek were announced.
History
The exploration of the peaceful use of nuclear energy began in the United States shortly after the end of World War II under the auspices of the United States founded in 1946, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Medical scientists were interested in the effects of radiation on the rapidly growing cells of cancer, and they received material for research purposes.
Findings from the military use should be used in future for peaceful purposes. The U.S. Navy took the lead, as she recognized the possibility of nuclear energy, to operate vessels on the oceans for long periods without refueling. So sent the Navy Captain Hyman Rickover, known for his skills in electrical engineering, drive systems and project management, to the AEC. Rickover's work at the AEC led to the development of the pressurized water reactor ( PWR ), which was installed as the first pattern in the submarine USS Nautilus. This boat demonstrated the principle of full-time operation under water by reaching the North Pole and diving operations through the polar ice.
In the successful naval reactor program nuclear-powered ships were developed. On May 26, 1958, the first commercial nuclear power plant in the United States by President Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated as part of its Atoms for Peace program in Shippingport. Due to the growth of the nuclear industry in the 1960s the AEC anticipated that more than 1,000 reactors in the United States in 2000 would be in operation. In 1974, the AEC was dissolved and replaced by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Nuclear Regulatory Commission ( USNRC or simply NRC ), the research and development of the Energy Research and Development Administration were transferred.
On 14 February 2002, Spencer Abraham, Secretary of Energy of the Bush administration, which announced " Nuclear Power 2010 Program" at. Through financial support of the state should first be built from a total of six to seven new nuclear power plants by the end of the decade. The Energy Policy Act adopted in 2005 included subsidies and government guarantees to develop nuclear energy. Under this law, 32 applications for the construction of new reactors at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were submitted by January 2008. With the start of construction in 2008 was expected.
In fact, in April 2009 began preliminary work on the construction of two new nuclear units at the Vogtle site in Georgia. In the nuclear power plant Bellefonte ' 2010 Nuclear Power Program ' of the construction of two new reactors was provided as part of the; the plans were largely withdrawn in August 2009.
Criticism
There were large public and academic debates about the use of nuclear energy in the United States, especially since the 1960s until the late 1980s, but since about 2001, when a nuclear renaissance was born. Here, issues such as nuclear accidents, radioactive waste management, nuclear proliferation, energy and terrorism played a role.
Among the critics were Barry Commoner, S. David Freeman, John Gofman, Arnold Gundersen, Mark Z. Jacobson, Amory Lovins, Arjun Makhijani, Gregory Minor and Joseph Romm.
The first growing acceptance of nuclear energy in the United States population declined both after the first accident at the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Iceland in 1979 and after the Japanese nuclear disaster of 2011.