In addition, power woes in the West have highlighted the need for new generating plants, even prompting some in the Northwest and California to take a new look at mothballed and unfinished plants. At least nine reactors have been sold in the past two years, many at prices much higher than earlier fire sales. At the same time the industry is consolidating. The number of companies owning nuclear plants has been reduced by half to about two dozen. Eventually there may be fewer than eight, says Hutchinson.
Concerns linger Still, industry critics and even some utility executives remain wary.
She argues that older reactors are deteriorating and that no clear solution has been found for disposing reactor wastes that remain dangerous to health and the environment for tens of thousands of years. Any long-term revival will depend on resolving lingering uncertainties, says John Holdren, a Harvard professor of environmental science and former chairman of the White House science and technology advisory panel in the Clinton administration. If any one of those factors shifts against the industry, nuclear power may again be doomed, he says. The Associated Press . All rights reserved.