Browner, Korea and the Chamber

Carol Browner, President Obama’s energy and climate advisor, said some nice things about nuclear energy:

"We have not built a nuclear plant in this country in a long time but we want to work with the industry to make that happen in the not too distant future," Browner said in a live chat on the White House website.

"We have been working with the nuclear industry to understand exactly what it is they need."

This adds Browner to the list of relevant administration figures to endorse nuclear energy (Chu, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, Obama himself), so we’ll take it.

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We were interested to see South Korea make a plant sale to UAE – the country had not seemed a major competitor before then – but the sale has unleashed ambition.

South Korea is aiming to grab at least 20 percent of the global market for nuclear reactors in the next 20 years, the government announced Wednesday.

A lot of ambition.

[Kim Young-hak, vice minister for Knowledge Economy] said by 2030, South Korea should join the United States and France as one of the world's leading builders of nuclear reactors.

The country aims to export 80 nuclear reactors by 2030, he said.

What can we say? Welcome, South Korea.

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce always has the option of staying neutral on a topic when its membership lacks consensus, but has lately taken on some hot topics, notably health care reform. However, we think the chamber has picked just about the right moment for this one, in a story about its 2010 plan:

On energy, [Chamber President and CEO Thomas] Donohue said nuclear power needs to be part of the nation's energy-producing mix. He said he has spoken to many in the environmental movement and senses a thaw in their longtime opposition to nuclear plants, which produce much lower emissions than coal-fired power plants.

We think Donohue has this about right in every aspect, and the Chamber in general has always seen nuclear energy in, shall we say, an enlightened way. So no complaint – maybe any of the chamber’s members who have issues with nuclear energy, will explore the topic more thoroughly.

Correx: We’re sure South Korea would love to sell a plant to India, but the sale was actually to UAE. Corrected. Thanks to reader E. Michael Blake for the catch.

Carol Browner wants you to know.