| But it's time for the rest of us to drop that hostility to nuclear power. It's increasingly clear that the biggest environmental threat we face is actually global warming, and that leads to a corollary: nuclear energy is green.
Nuclear power, in contrast with other sources, produces no greenhouse gases. So President Bush's overall environmental policy gives me the shivers, but he's right to push ahead for nuclear energy. There haven't been any successful orders for new nuclear plants since 1973, but several proposals for new plants are now moving ahead - and that's good for the world we live in. Global energy demand will rise 60 percent over the next 25 years, according to the International Energy Agency, and nuclear power is the cleanest and best bet to fill that gap. Solar power is a disappointment, still accounting for only about one-fifth of 1 percent of the nation's electricity and costing about five times as much as other sources. Wind is promising, for its costs have fallen 80 percent, but it suffers from one big problem: wind doesn't blow all the time. It's difficult to rely upon a source that comes and goes. In contrast, nuclear energy already makes up 20 percent of America's power, not to mention 75 percent of France's. A sensible energy plan must encourage conservation - far more than Mr. Bush's plans do - and promote things like hybrid vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells. But for now, nuclear power is the only source that doesn't contribute to global warming and that can quickly become a mainstay of the grid. |
There's a new generation of nuclear plants that are lean, green, and safe, and its time we start seriously considering their use here in the U.S.
Surprised to hear that from someone on the left? Well, if it helps, I'm surprised to be saying it. But if you do your homework, you'll start to understand that the idea is not as crazy as it sounds.
Take, for example, the problem of nuclear waste. It's toxic, and its sticks around for hundreds of thousands of years, right? True, but only to a point. 100 years ago the idea of nuclear power was the stuff of science fiction. 100 years from now, do you really believe that we won't have found a way to reprocess the stuff? Or 200 years? Or 1000?
And which is harder to imagine - that we'll invent technology that solve the problem of toxic waste disposal, or that we'll invent technology that reverses global warming?
If you believe (as I do) that man-made climate change is something we cannot wait to act on, you have to be willing to consider all of the available solutions. Solar, wind, hydro, bio, hydrogen - they're all great in theory, but that's the problem - they're mostly just theory. One day they may indeed be the solution. But today? They aren't even close. But nuclear is.
So... stop that knee from jerking and give it some thought. Who knows. You just might change your mind.
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