The July issue of Nuclear Energy Insight is now available on NEI's public Web site. In it, you'll find an article on a rally that built support for building a new reactor at a Mississippi plant. There also are reports on the comprehensive energy legislation and President Carter’s visit to the Cook nuclear plant. Other articles discuss nuclear plant security, a new nuclear battery that keeps going and going, and a study that finds the Northeast will need more nuclear power plants to help clean-air efforts.
Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu
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