Great!
Well, considering U.S. only has about 66 (?) plants and we haven't built one in 20 some years, maybe the Phrench are the ones to have build one (they seem to do well in 3rd world countries
)
France 2007 population 61,538,322 --- 58 active plants
United States 2007 population 301,139,947 -- 66 active plants
US Nuclear Pwr Market Open To Foreign Cos -DOE Official
October 02, 2007: 12:57 PM EST
PARIS -(Dow Jones)- Foreign companies, including French energy firms, can share in the United States' nuclear renaissance, a U.S. energy official said Monday.
"Our market is wide open for nuclear power," said Karen Alderman Harbert, the U.S. Department of Energy's assistant secretary for policy and international affairs.
French power giant Electricite de France (1024251.FR) hopes to have its first nuclear plant in the U.S. up and running by 2015, a company spokesman confirmed Monday. EdF aims to build the plant as part of a joint venture with Constellation Energy Group (CEG).
EdF already has 58 nuclear power plants in France and has announced plans to build a 59th in Flamanville, Normandy. The company also said in May that it would like to play a top role in the United Kingdom's attempts to revive its nuclear industry by building four to five nuclear power plants.
Alderman Harbert said the U.S. plans to build "much more" nuclear power capacity, and recalled that her government recently received the first application for 30 years to build a new plant.
There is room "for everybody to participate," she said.
Meanwhile, on the subject of biofuels, Alderman Harbert said she expects so- called second-generation fuels made from abundant feedstocks like "sawdust, switchgrass and plant waste" to be "cost-competitive with regular ethanol by 2012."
The U.S. government is already backing the production of first-generation biofuels from plants and animal fats. It sees them as a way to reduce its dependence on oil imports and as being better for the environment.
But while the plants used to make the fuels do convert carbon dioxide into oxygen as they grow, the carbon footprint of farming, transporting and refining them, and their role in raising food prices, have called into question their green credentials.
The second-generation fuels, and eventually hydrogen power, will help reduce reliance on fossil fuels, Alderman Harbert said. But for now, she said the world economy would benefit from an increased oil supply, and underlined the need for more refining capacity.
-By Adam Mitchell, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 40171740; adam.mitchell@ dowjones.com