Wisconsin could be in for higher costs if it lifts it’s ban on new nuclear energy plants, a former commissioner for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday at the State Capitol.
Peter Bradford, who served on the NRC from 1977 to 1982, outlined the apparent and hidden costs associated with using nuclear energy if Wisconsin lifted its moratorium on building new nuclear plants.
“Obviously, it’s not my place to tell you what to do in terms of Wisconsin law and policy, so what I’ll try to do is to give … a sense of the backdrop and the effect that new nuclear power is having,” Bradford said.
Bradford said nuclear production comes with serious financial risks for companies, taxpayers and consumers because of their uncertain returns on investments and their high costs to build and operate.
“This is not just speculation on my part,” Bradford said. “It really is playing out in states that are further down this road.”
Instead of solving the country’s energy problems with nuclear options, Bradford said energy efficiency measures can lower demand for new nuclear plants and other energy sources, ultimately leading to more savings for the state’s consumers.
According to Bradford, the capacity for nuclear energy production has been constant both nationally and worldwide for many years. These numbers, he said, are not indicative of a “nuclear renaissance,” but the interest in using nuclear energy has arisen due to climate concerns.
Bradford said the United States Department of Energy announced a plan in 2002 that would build new nuclear plants by 2010, but the plan has since been modified to approve plans by 2010 to build facilities over the next decade.
“Congress passed a number of incentives to get new plants built … and the result was that the NRC does now have 17 pending applications to build 24 plants,” Bradford said.
Bradford added, however, this is a “paper renaissance” because those companies have been careful to say they have not made a firm decision to implement those plans.
Rep. Mark Honadel, R-South Milwaukee, a member of the Committee on Energy and Utilities, however, said he does not understand why nuclear power is not put to use when the country already built a storage facility for the byproducts.
“I am one of the representatives [who] have been to Yucca Mountain, and it’s heart-wrenching that they spent millions for that hole and we can’t use it to store waste,” Honadel said.
Honadel said nuclear energy should be used because it is a good baseload energy source and it does not create a lot of carbon emissions.
Senate President Fred Risser, D-Madison, welcomed Bradford to the Capitol, the last stop on a three-city tour hosted by the Wisconsin branch of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which included the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and the Urban Ecology Center of Milwaukee.
