Frist: America has waited, "far too long," to build new nuclear.

Here's Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) from today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Sometime in the next five years, if all goes according to plan, construction workers will turn over the first spades of dirt for the foundations of a new nuclear power plant. It will be a day America has awaited for far too long. Meeting our energy needs in a cost-effective way while reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil requires that we end the country's long nuclear energy drought...

Without nuclear power we will likely face another energy crisis. The federal government's forthcoming official 30-year energy forecast, indeed, will assume that we're going to build another six gigawatts of generating capacity -- roughly six new reactors. In July, furthermore, Congress passed legislation that will provide utilities with incentives to build new nuclear facilities...

The rebirth of nuclear power will mean changed attitudes, cleaner air and greater energy independence.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics