When the crucial issues of the today are digging out from under an economic recession and acting quickly to deter climate change, Public Citizen has repeatedly questioned the wisdom of putting any of our eggs in the nuclear basket –- a technology that is too expensive and too slow to be relevant to the times.
Case in point, the nuclear reactor design the industry is using to usher in the nuclear revival in the U.S is whimpering in retreat abroad. The European Pressurized Reactor — designed by French-state controlled Areva and peddled by French-state controlled Electricite de France — set to make its debut in Finland is currently 3 years behind schedule and nearly $3 billion over its original cost estimates. This reactor design, floundering in Finland as well as France, is the same that has been proposed for Maryland by a joint-venture between Baltimore-based Constellation and the previously mentioned, Electricte de France.
