Stability For Our Time

President Obama said that he supports renewing America's nuclear power industry. If you're really worried about global warming and you want to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, then the only technology that's ready to step into the gap is nuclear power. None of the other alternatives are even close.

Nuke plants are clean, safe, and efficient. And before you ignorant hacks try to shout "Three Mile Island!" and "Chernobyl!" you might want to educate yourselves on what really happened, why it happened, and why it isn't a concern for the AMerican power program. Yes, it will take a little bit more work than watching a marathon of The China Syndrome, but wouldn't you like to have a few facts to back up your argument?

The fact is that at Three Mile Island, everything that could go wrong did, including operators who failed to recognize the signs of a bubble in the core, and a progressive coolant leak. Despite these major failures, nobody, not even the people on site, received a lethal dose of radiation. The highest dose received by any worker in the plant was about the equivalent of a heart angiogram. The Chernobyl plant had a problem due to a poor design, unapproved test procedures, and the Soviet Union's disregard for standard safety features, like a containment building.

Here's a clue. The US Navy operates dozens of nuclear reactors all over the country. These reactors have been on-line and running for years, operating under extreme conditions, going through major transients on a daily basis, and the NAvy's safety record is without a blemish.

These are 19 and 20-year-old kids running those reactors folks. If the Navy can do this with kids straight out of high school, well, surely Commonwealth Edison can do it with these same highly trained folks when they finish their service.

As for waste, the technological problem is solved; we're still fighting a political battle. Yucca Mountain has been studied every way it is possible to study. Unlike Global Warming, the data is widely available to all interested parties and to date, not one has found significant error. Waste stored at Yucca Mountain will not propose a risk of serious dose to the public for the next 1,000,000 years.

But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a little electioneering. President Obama tried to de-fund Yucca Mountain, claiming that it was no longer an option., an apparent bone to Sen Harry Reid. President Obama was overridden, but funding was reduced to its lowest level in the history of the project. Just like they did with the Clinch River Breeder Reactor, ignorant opponents are trying to strangle the project in red tape.

Solar power is decades away from being a viable source of the large quantities of energy we need. Geo thermal is a pipe dream right now. Hydro power is about tapped out; all the best spots are already taken. Wind power upsets almost as many wealthy liberals as nuke power because it might spoilt their expensive beach front views.

If you want to stimulate the job market, how about spending some money on jobs that will last for decades after the stimulus money runs out?. Our existing nuke plants have had their lifetimes extended multiple times and have operated for far longer than their design specs. We need new plants to replace our aging ones and even more new ones to augment their output. Besides the construction jobs, we'll have operating jobs, maintenance jobs, radcon jobs, safety jobs, manufacturing jobs, and waste disposal jobs. For every dollar spent in the original investment, we'll see a return of hundreds of dollars in job creation and clean power production.

Nuke plants. They'll bring jobs, energy independence, and greenhouse gas reduction. Oh, and cheap electricity for hundreds of years.

I just hope Obama doesn't change his mind on this one.

In this article there is blendy on information is in behind and moreover,I agree with the obama thoughts about the solar power and the positive energies.....

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