Economy to slow U.S. nuclear power growth: NRC head

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An “excessive exuberance” for expansion in the U.S. nuclear power industry has calmed because of the global credit and economic crisis, the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Tuesday.

Separately, a GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy official warned that the lack of credit will slow the pace of U.S. nuclear power development.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dale Klein said in the past two years he worried whether there would be enough NRC staff to review an avalanche of licenses for new nuclear power plants, none of which have been ordered since the 1970s.

“Today, of course, the picture looks a little different … it seems like the global economy has resolved the issue of what I referred to as an ‘excessive exuberance’ to be in line for the first new reactor builds,” Klein said in a speech to NRC staff in Washington.

Reuters