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President Obama’s home state looks to join the nuclear renaissance
The Chicago Tribune reports that the Illinois State Senate voted March 16 to drop the ban on building nuclear power plants in Illinois. The measure was sent to the House on a bipartisan 40-1 vote.
According to the newspaper, Sen. Mike Jacobs, (D-Moline) who sponsored the proposal (SB 3388), said Illinois follow the lead of President Barack Obama, a former Illinois state senator, to back new nuclear power projects. He cited federal support for a power plant in Georgia.
On Feb 16 President Obama announced $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees for Southern's Vogtle plant which will build twin Westinghouse 1,150 MW AP1000 nuclear reactors.
Platts reported there could be opposition to the bill in the House, but much depends on the leadership. The train has clearly left the station with a 40-1 bipartisan vote.
According to Platts, House Speaker Michael Madigan holds strong anti-nuclear views. State Representative Patrick Verschoore, (D-Rock Island) and the bill's sponsor in the House, told Platts he hopes to have the House endorse the measure before the legislature adjourns on May 31.
Illinois and nuclear energy have a long history
Exelon (NYSE:EXC), the owner and operator of multiple nuclear power plants in Illinois, has not been successful in securing loan guarantees for a proposed new reactor in Texas. The company is planning to file an Early Site Permit for the Victoria, TX, site later this year.
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), there are six operating nuclear power plants in Illinois: Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities. With the exception of the single-unit Clinton plant, each of these facilities has two reactors. The two reactors at Braidwood and both reactors at Byron are pressurized light water reactors (PWR). The reactors at the other facilities (Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities are boiling water reactors (BWR).
Squash court success
According to the EIA, the origin of all of the commercial and military nuclear industries in the world can be traced back to December 2, 1942 at the University of Chicago. On that day, a team of scientists under Enrico Fermi (right) initiated the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.
Seven decades later, Illinois is the national leader in nuclear capacity. Illinois has almost as much nuclear capacity by itself as the United Kingdom.
Twenty-one other countries with at least one nuclear plant have less capacity. In 2009, the State of Illinois ranked 1st in the U.S. in nuclear capacity and 1st in nuclear generation.
It looks like the State of Illinois has remembered its history and is taking it as a springboard to the future.
Video Extra – Johnny Cash singing about the Rock Island line
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