Nuclear
Nuclear Power
09/04/09 20:42
The Obama administration came to power on the coat
tails of many fears Americans these days seem to
share. One of the best solutions to these fears has
been the promise of renewable, green, clean, or
alternative power. (Thus ending the fear that we'll
run out, that we're funding terrorism overseas, or
that pollution will precipitate another ice age)
To this end, the Obama administration has coddled the American people with such fantasies as power derived from wind, geothermal, biomass, and perhaps the most legitimate source, solar. What he has neglected to do is invest any money in a form of power generation that emits no greenhouse gasses, is safe, is real, and is being pursued to some degree by virtually the entire industrial world: Nuclear.
Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the topic has been a taboo. People have assumed the use of nuclear power to be a decidedly bad, or dangerous thing to do. They would rather have their power generated by fanciful technologies that won't be developed for years. Per kilowatt, including even the price of construction, nuclear power is very competitive with coal and natural gas. It does take some money and some time to build a plant, but real solutions often do take time to implement.
There are over a hundred Nuclear Power plants in the US that have been operating without anyone noticing for years. No major incidents, and certainly great debacles over it causing climate change.
Storage is the only real issue, and there are several workable solutions to that problem including plans in the US to safely burry the waste inside a mountain where it should be relatively stable for the 20,000 years it will take to decay. Not only mountains, but also space serve as potential places to deposit the waste. With further developments of disposal techniques, such as transmutation, the process just gets cleaner and cleaner. But does any of that matter? No, people are too afraid of nuclear power.
There are a great many plants that are nearing the end of their licensed operational periods, and we will either need to build new ones or build reactors that run on hope very soon. All this is not to mention the lack of funding for Fusion reactor research, which could likely end the issue of generating power once and for all.
To this end, the Obama administration has coddled the American people with such fantasies as power derived from wind, geothermal, biomass, and perhaps the most legitimate source, solar. What he has neglected to do is invest any money in a form of power generation that emits no greenhouse gasses, is safe, is real, and is being pursued to some degree by virtually the entire industrial world: Nuclear.
Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the topic has been a taboo. People have assumed the use of nuclear power to be a decidedly bad, or dangerous thing to do. They would rather have their power generated by fanciful technologies that won't be developed for years. Per kilowatt, including even the price of construction, nuclear power is very competitive with coal and natural gas. It does take some money and some time to build a plant, but real solutions often do take time to implement.
There are over a hundred Nuclear Power plants in the US that have been operating without anyone noticing for years. No major incidents, and certainly great debacles over it causing climate change.
Storage is the only real issue, and there are several workable solutions to that problem including plans in the US to safely burry the waste inside a mountain where it should be relatively stable for the 20,000 years it will take to decay. Not only mountains, but also space serve as potential places to deposit the waste. With further developments of disposal techniques, such as transmutation, the process just gets cleaner and cleaner. But does any of that matter? No, people are too afraid of nuclear power.
There are a great many plants that are nearing the end of their licensed operational periods, and we will either need to build new ones or build reactors that run on hope very soon. All this is not to mention the lack of funding for Fusion reactor research, which could likely end the issue of generating power once and for all.