The reason politicians don't back nuclear is because of the way our political system operates.
A politician might believe our nation will need more power plants within the next 20 years. But they're incentivised to do the thing that, relatively, will be best for their near-term re-election prospects.
And just think of all the things that are better for their re-election prospects than a nuclear power plant in their constituency:
* A nuclear power plant in someone else's constituency. Play chicken with keeping the lights on and maybe someone else will swerve!
* Running an existing coal or gas power plant for longer
* A solar or wind power installation. Or better yet, one in someone else's back yard.
* Demand reduction like subsidised LED lightbulbs.
* Vague technology promises, like electric car batteries stabilising the grid.
* Finding of creating some organisation to take the blame once the brownouts and bill increases start.
* Just plain doing nothing and retiring before the bill comes due.
Why risk your job today supporting a nuclear plant, when you can kick the can down the road and keep yourself employed for another 20 years, maybe more?
Politicians are subject to those incentives, and it's hardly realistic to expect them to place the nation's interests above their own. Frankly it's a wonder any infrastructure gets built at all.
How are car-to-grid schemes any more unproven than next Gen reactors? You're not helping the side of science with untested hypotheses like that.
But my main point is realpolitik, or like you say "the way our political system operates." We have a political system that has evolved to handle issues in what we think is the least bad way (worst system except for all the others). Is nuclear in its blind spot, or would untested science-ocracy lead to worse outcomes?
No, the reason nuclear is shunned is largely one of cost. Rate payers don't want higher rates. Nuclear has led to huge financial risk displaced to the rate payers, and they don't like it. And they let their politicians know they don't like it.
Well, I think there's more than one reason, corresponding to the multiple points in the posts by trimbo and 205guy.
And one of those reasons is political, independent of finance. I agree other reasons are financial.
The reason I think there are political reasons independent of the financial is because I've seen politicians oppose waste incinerators and windfarms in the face of local opposition, even though they were entirely privately financed.
Politicians in South Carolina and Georgia embraced new AP1000 reactors at VC Summer and Vogtle. It was politically popular to support the new reactors, up until it became clear that they were catastrophically mismanaged financial disasters.
For every community in the US where you can find voters too afraid of radiation to permit reactors, I can find one where voters' first thought about new nukes is enthusiasm over the increased employment and property tax base. But that's a two-edged sword. It's also the local community that is going to be stuck paying off huge costs if the projects go over budget. The recent projects in South Carolina and Georgia went hugely over budget. The SC project has been halted. If the Georgia project finishes it's still going to be one of the most expensive energy projects in US history.
So it would be hard to pitch another AP1000 project in the US today, but mostly because the first ones had every sort of problem that the builders promised to avoid. Less than a decade ago there were a dozen places in the US that had tentative plans to follow up with AP1000 reactors of their own, if the initial projects performed to spec. They've evaporated because the initial projects were years behind schedule and billions over budget. If you want to have a serious conversation about building new reactors in the US, start with the potential host communities that aren't afraid of radiation but are afraid of multi-billion-dollar project overruns. What do you think it would take to build a new reactor at VC Summer now, given the painful recent experience with the AP1000?
A politician might believe our nation will need more power plants within the next 20 years. But they're incentivised to do the thing that, relatively, will be best for their near-term re-election prospects.
And just think of all the things that are better for their re-election prospects than a nuclear power plant in their constituency:
* A nuclear power plant in someone else's constituency. Play chicken with keeping the lights on and maybe someone else will swerve!
* Running an existing coal or gas power plant for longer
* A solar or wind power installation. Or better yet, one in someone else's back yard.
* Demand reduction like subsidised LED lightbulbs.
* Vague technology promises, like electric car batteries stabilising the grid.
* Finding of creating some organisation to take the blame once the brownouts and bill increases start.
* Just plain doing nothing and retiring before the bill comes due.
Why risk your job today supporting a nuclear plant, when you can kick the can down the road and keep yourself employed for another 20 years, maybe more?
Politicians are subject to those incentives, and it's hardly realistic to expect them to place the nation's interests above their own. Frankly it's a wonder any infrastructure gets built at all.