"Although nuclear fuel reprocessing continues in Europe and Japan, the United States abandoned it in the 1970s because of concerns that the stream of pure plutonium that is created poses a nuclear proliferation risk."

The real reason was that it cost more to reprocess at the time. Yellow cake is more expensive now, like 20 buck a pound. So that may change the economics. Economics should control not politcs. Nuclear is inexpensive, clean. What more could one ask for. Governor has run daddy's company in the ground, lets listen to what he has to say.

The reason Japan and France can afford nuclear is because they are socialist economies that have the high tax base to subsidize their nuclear industries. I don't think Utahns realize how much government oversight and bureacracy will be necessary to expand the nuclear power industry in producing, reprocessing and then guarding/storing waste or plutonium (on tax payers' dime!) to the levels the industry says. Yucca Mountain's cost is estimated at already $77 billion (tax payer dollars!) -- and that's just the nuclear dump yard. That price does not include the shipping of all that waste by rail through Salt Lake City and Las Vegas to get there, again with government oversight and military guard (maybe we can hire Enron and Blackwater to do this for us). Seriously, folks, we're still paying for the storage and guarding of nuclear waste of nuclear power generated at the dawn of the age -- can't people realize the endless expense of nuclear power/waste and why it requires endless government subsidies to pay for it all? As a conservative, Republican state, Utah cannot set itself up for socialistic programs like nuclear power! Let the free market rule!

The technology to run a nuclear power plant on thorium fuel and reprocess the fuel on-site, continuously, was developed 50 years ago at Oak Ridge National Laboratory under the Molten-Salt Reactor Technology Program. This nuclear technology would be a much better fit for the power needs of the state of Utah than a light-water reactor (the type that has been proposed). Learn more about molten-salt reactor technology and how it can benefit Utah.

it's about time they started talking about clean energy again.
Re: Nuclear is best...the Guv did NOT run daddy's business into the ground. while i agree the Guv doesn't know much about leading (but neither do I) he had little to do with the family company actually. his just younger brother Peter is the man in charge and his younger brother David was also more involved.
anyway, back to our agreement on nukes. you gotta love the jobs it would create, the clean energy it would provide. now all we need is to complete the light rail system from north Juab county to Box Elder county.

It's going to be a challenge for Utah to squeeze enough tax money out of its residents to fend off California, Arizona and Nevada in US court and Mexico in International court for ignoring the Colorado River Compact and placing two nuclear plants on the primary drinking water supply for Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Las Vegas since the Green River flows into the Colorado. This will be a historic fight between the states, possibly the most costly in US history. I'm betting that in the end, after a decade of court wars and hundreds of millions in wasted tax dollars, the decision will be that even a remote and tiny risk of loss of drinking water (and the resulting loss of) those cities will trump Utah's politcians' right to profiteer and some jobs for an insignificant backwater town.

If the US were to start experementing with Nuclear Fission instead of Fusion, I believe we'd be better off. The Protons of the Uranium atom must disintegrate at only 50% of the friction in the deuteranium core. This enables the fractional product of beta emitters to conserve the electric charge as excess neutrons. The technology is there to convert protons inside the nucleus of the fission product and create pure alpha particle emitters from the invariant mass of the energy that is released as photons and the resulting kinetic energy of the fission fragments should produce the energy Utah needs. The problem with fusion is that the beta particles and gamma rays produced have a radioactive decay that is clearly not beneficial for storage and noone in Utah wants that responsibility. However, not all fissionable isotopes can sustain the chain reaction they're talking about. Fission energy can absorb the beta emissions through breeder reactors to halt the neutron repulsion. Gov Huntsman should consider the possibilities of fissionable or spontaneous fission induced neutron isotopic nuclear fuels. Its cheaper and cleaner.

"Transition Power, whose principals include state Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, recently signed a water-supply contract with Kane County Water Conservancy District, whose director is Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab"
Why is there always a wolf in the chicken pen? If the legislature is considering telephone legislation to open the residence market, there will be a bunch of legislators on the Qwest payroll squashing the bill. If Wal-Mart wants to open bank competition, darn if a squad of legislators aren't working for banking interests and keep the market great for existing companies but closed to others. They have tried to kill credit union checking, but do nothing about all the predatory Check Cashing stores (owned by big banks). When will Utahans wake up and vote for citizens who aren't owned by industry? Maybe try a incentive campaign to limit fund raising so they are harder to buy. I thought I had heard it all when the Utah Cty GOP considered voting to blame Satan for illegal immigration, but paying a Nuclear power plant for all expenses if they ever operate or not, smells very bad, even worse. The legislators are carrying the stench on their hands, by being pious on Sundays.

The legislature once again will deliver. Need nuclear reactors? Voucher money? A road to your development in Utah County where Geneva Steel used to be? A soccer stadium? If you can conceive it, we can deliver it. Is this a great State, or what?

Sounds like gobbeldygoup to me. Let's expedite and motivate the builders and gain the benefits...It's needed now and especially the future.

Are you suggesting flaunting the Colorado River Compact and building even if other states don't want to us to use their major drinking water supply this way Ken? Seems seceding from the US and throwing off US law would be part of what was necessary to achieve that goal.
Of course any one of the states involved could probably best Utah in a shooting war if we did that.