I just can't stop writing about nukes
This morning I heard a radio spot from the Nuclear Energy Institute about how nuclear power is the clean, affordable solution to our nation's energy problems. Interesting given the recently ramped-up media attention on nukes. I guess NEI is running a little PR blitz in anticipation of a renewed push for a federal energy bill, which will likely include provisions friendly to the nuclear power industry.
On a related note, you might want to check out this article in today's Post about Rep. Joe Barton (R-Southern Company) (okay, R-TX), the House's driving force behind dirty energy policies.
On a related note, you might want to check out this article in today's Post about Rep. Joe Barton (R-Southern Company) (okay, R-TX), the House's driving force behind dirty energy policies.
posted by Waage on Thursday, April 14, 2005
5 Comments:
If you'd like to take a look at the ads being used in NEI's latest campaign, click here.
For more on the clean air benefits of nuclear energy, click here.
Actually, I'd like to hear more about the clean air benefits of nuclear waste.
If you're concerned about emissions (particulate matter or greenhouse gases) you should be thinking about nuclear energy.
Coal is not going away, neither is natural gas, or nuclear for that matter. Demand is still rising (both domestically and globally) and renewables, while promising, still can't do it alone in the near term.
Check out this post from Synthstuff for more.
Clean energy like wind and solar power is an untapped resource that can meet our energy needs without creating nuclear waste. Why should we spend the time and money to build more nuclear power plants and figure out what to do with all the nuclear waste when we could instead be building clean energy plants?
Of course wind and solar energy should be developed and utilized where feasible but every method of generating electricity has its pros and cons. Solar and wind will not be able to contribute to baseload power anytime in the near future. Even the American Wind Energy Association estimates that under the best circumstances, wind farms could produce only 6% of our nation's electricity by 2020. And with wind's low capacity factors (the best wind farms operate at about 35%, average in the US is closer to 25%) peaking units have to be built and maintained to keep the energy supply stable. And how are peaking units powered? With fossil fuels.
Solar has its own problems with reliability, land use, efficiency and waste. And while antinuclear extremists perpetually bemoan the longevity of spent nuclear fuel, I have yet to hear one mention the toxic waste generated from solar panel production--waste that never decays.
My position is that we should develop and maintain an optimized and balanced energy mix that includes all generation methods. But did you know that if all of the electricity that you (I'm talking one individual) consumed in a year were generated by nuclear power plants, the amount of material that would have to be stored (including the spent fuel and the licensed metal, sealed container) would be the size of two wooden pencils? For comparison, the average car spews 40 lbs of NOx into the air every year.
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