– 1 Feb 2021
Of all the daunting tasks Joe Biden faces, especially vital is the inspection of dangerously embrittled atomic reactors still operating in the United States.
A meltdown at any one of them would threaten the health and safety of millions of people while causing major impact to an already struggling economy. The COVID-19 pandemic would complicate and add to the disaster. A nuclear power plant catastrophe would severely threaten accomplishments Biden is hoping to achieve in his presidency.
The problem of embrittlement is on the top of the list of nuclear power concerns. The “average age” length of operation of nuclear power plants in the U.S., the federal government’s Energy information Agency, reported in 2019 was 38 years.
Gary Cartwright, EU Today publishing editor. 3 Feb 21,
On January 29th EUToday hosted a conference at the Press Club, Brussels, concentrating on the new and proposed nuclear power plants in Belarus, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
Moderator Natalia Richardson drew parallels between the risks surrounding nuclear energy today, and the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, of which she, as a student in Ukraine at the time, had experience.
Keynote speaker Jutta Paulus, a German Green MEP who sits on the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, told the conference that at present nuclear energy supplies around 10% of global demand for electricity. However, to maintain this level, taking into account rising demand and the decommissioning of existing reactors, new-builds will need to come online at the rate of 50 per year.