Skip to main content

NEI’s VP Alex Flint Debated Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps on C-SPAN

This morning NEI’s VP Alex Flint debated Kevin Kamps (pdf) from Beyond Nuclear for about 45 minutes.

Besides disagreeing with every issue Mr. Kamps raised, I have to say he was quite smooth with his responses and did an effective job at making his case. But as Mr. Flint pointed out at 42:50, many of Mr. Kamps’ claims were “irresponsible fear mongering.”

Among the topics discussed were CBO’s debunked 50 percent default rate which is not based on past industry experience, Vermont Yankee’s tritium situation, and how loan guarantees reduce the cost of electricity to the consumer (pdf). Enjoy!

Comments

Carletes said…
makes me sick to see the same old BS coming out of kamps' mouth. Markajani study? Amory Lovins? Can't believe he keeps reinforcing the 50% default rate. Not even restaurants default that much.
Tom said…
I'm wondering why NEI doesn't emphasize the importance of baseload power. To me, the most important thing is that when I flip the switch, the light in my house (or my computer, which I used to do work) turns on.

To me, that's something important that any energy policy has to preserve.
Anonymous said…
why NEI doesn't emphasize the importance of baseload power

Because "baseload" is a bisyllabic word, which is one more syllable than the average voter can handle.
DocForesight said…
@Anon - Here's a simple solution to that problem:

break the word in two, thus:

base ... load.

See? Single syllables.
Phil Hamm said…
"I feel like I'm arguing with somebody who says that we can't put men on the moon". CLASSIC!!!! HA HA HA HA!! SO TRUE!

"That's irresponsible fear mongering." Good for you!!!!!
T-Squared said…
Alex did a fantastic job! He was cool, calm and measured, providing factual responses to the concerns brought up.

Had I been in Alex's shoes, I would have lost my patience with Kevin Kamps, reached over the desk, grabbed him by the his lapels, looked him straight in the eye and said: "Why can't you get it through your thick skull that the waste problem isn't spent nuclear fuel its the billions of tons of CO2 emissions being spewed out every year through human activity and your pathetic wind farms just aren't going to cut it."

Kevin would do well to read David McKay's book "Sustainable Energy -- Without the Hot Air". I am sure if he did he would stop trying to flog Arjun Makhijani's fluff piece on carbon-free energy. David MacKay incidentally is the UK's Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change and, as one would expect from someone in his position, he has a pretty good handle on the capabilities of renewables and their drawbacks. He has concluded, if we want to beat climate change, we need a good dollop of nuclear energy.

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

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

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should