What do they know? … and, when did they know it?

What do the legislative sponsors of HB875 and SB2162 – calling for the repeal of the state’s moratorium on nuclear plant construction -- know that this man doesn’t about building new nuclear plants without a place to dispose of the long-lived, extremely dangerous, high-level radioactive wastes?

• Exelon Chief Executive John Rowe has repeatedly said that Exelon will not build a new nuclear plant until there is a permanent solution to the disposition of spent fuel. The industry had counted on interring its waste at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. But that project is many years overdue, and it is unclear whether it will ever open.
  The Electricity Forum, January 2007
• One obstacle to any new nuclear plant, and a long-time problem for all existing ones, is the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. “I think the waste disposal issue is the single biggest hang-up to a nuclear renaissance,” Rowe said in an interview with PBS in October 2007.
  Medill News Service, 2/4/09—
• Exelon CEO John Rowe calls Yucca mountain project ‘linchpin’ to solving waste problem and building new plants. "So what does Exelon Chief Executive Officer John Rowe want? Fortune magazine, in a May 15, 2006, article titled 'Meet Mr. Nuke,' details Rowe's call to solve the waste problem before additional nuclear power plants are built. "We have to be able to look the public in the eye and say, 'If we build a plant, here's where the waste will go,' " Rowe told Fortune. “If we can't answer that question honestly to our neighbors, then we're playing politics too high for us to be playing.” The Yucca Mountain Project is the 'linchpin' to solving the waste problem and building new plants.”
  Las Vegas Review Journal, 5/15/07--
• "I can't fully get over the waste issue," he said. The nation still has no permanent repository for the many thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste that has accumulated over the decades. Rowe said he would not build a new nuclear plant until a permanent solution to the waste problem is found. "I feel strongly about that," he said.
  Chicago Tribune, Sept. 23, 2006
• Depending upon which side of the fence you are sitting, the nuclear renaissance is either in full blossom or an arid landscape. The new uranium miners – Paladin Resources, UrAsia and SXR Uranium One – celebrate the record spot and long-term uranium price. Exelon Corp Chief Executive John Rowe is less sanguine, based upon comments he made this past Friday, “The government may have fooled me on 17 reactors that I currently run, but I’m the one who’s being foolish if I build a new plant without knowing what they’re going to do with the spent fuel.” Exelon is the largest owner of nuclear power plants in the United States.
  Stock Interview.com, Jan. 15, 2007 –

Authorizing the construction of new nuclear reactors in Illinois – or anywhere -- without a permanent place to dispose of the radioactive wastes is like authorizing the construction of a new Sear’s Tower – without bathrooms. If John Rowe, staunch supporter of nuclear power, and the CEO of the nation’s largest nuclear utility – Exelon – and Chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute – the trade group for the industry – believes we need to solve the radioactive waste problem before he would build new reactors, then what kind of information must the sponsors of these bills be relying on? Is it – green?

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