ANS letter to Congress on portfolio standard
Dear U.S. Senators and Representatives:
On behalf of the 10,000 members of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), I urge you to support including nuclear energy in any clean/renewable electricity generation "portfolio standard" Congress may consider as part of energy/climate change legislation.
The members of ANS recognize that U.S. energy and environmental policy objectives will require development and utilization of many new clean and renewable technologies. However, we firmly believe that nuclear power must be a central part of the U.S. clean energy solution. Nuclear is the only power source that can provide baseload, emission-free electricity in quantities sufficient to meet our growing energy demands and preserve long-term economic competitiveness.
Today America's 104 nuclear plants generate 73% of all the emission-free electricity in the U.S., with the other 27% coming from hydroelectric (24%) and renewables (3%). In the U.S. alone, nuclear generation avoids the emission of 700 million tons of CO2, 1.1 million tons of nitrous oxides, and 3.4 million tons of sulfur dioxide. Worldwide, some 440 nuclear plants avoid more than twice the global Kyoto goal for CO2 emissions. In the U.S., the current fleet of nuclear plants provides a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 100 million cars off the road!
From a scientific perspective, nuclear power is also a "renewable" source of energy. While our current reactor fleet uses a "once-through" fuel cycle, the adoption of used fuel recycling and advanced reactor designs could in the long term provide a nearly limitless supply of clean, emission-free energy. Indeed, solar power, generally considered to be the gold standard of "renewable" energy, is in fact facilitated by the sun's nuclear reactions.
In their respective energy bills, the House and Senate have considered including a "portfolio standard" that would require U.S. utilities to supply a certain percentage of their electricity from clean and/or renewable sources. We believe that if a standard is included in the conference agreement of such legislation, nuclear power generation should be included as a clean/renewable source.
ANS is strongly supportive of the continued development of non-emitting energy sources, including solar, wind, tidal and geothermal. However, it is clear that nuclear energy will continue to supply the vast majority of our emission-free electricity for the immediate future. Therefore, we urge you to support equal treatment of nuclear in any portfolio standard.
Please feel free to contact Craig Piercy in the ANS Washington Office at (202) 973-8050 if you have any questions or need additional information.
Sincerely,
Donald C. Hintz
President
