By David Beard, The Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Last week, Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said that an effort to lift the state’s ban on nuclear power is in the pipeline for this year’s legislative session.
On Tuesday, two interim committees – Government Operations and Government Organization – got an overview of the current state of nuclear power in preparation for the coming deliberations.
Eight presenters offered their views. Marcus Nichol director of New Reactors for the Nuclear Energy Institute said that advanced reactors in development are nothing like the existing technology prevalent at nuclear plants across the country.
Those plants, he said, with their familiar giant cooling towers and containment buildings, employ light-water-cooled reactors that generate 1,000 megawatts of baseload power. New technology offers a wide portfolio of products of different sizes and more than 50 companies are exploring the field…
