The Case For Nuclear Power

Bob Perrin 01.01.09

If you think nuclear energy is dead, think again. Nuclear energy is currently providing 20 percent of our nation’s electricity, and doing so without emitting any greenhouse gases. Nuclear energy accounts for 90 percent of all electric utility reductions in CO2 emissions since the mid seventy’s, and provides more than 70 percent of this nation’s emission-free electricity.

Conservation must be one component of a long-term strategy, but America must invest heavily in developing renewable energy sources. Unfortunately these steps alone will not meet America’s estimated 50 percent increase in electricity demand by 2030. We will need more base-load power, and a good place to start is with a proven form of clean electricity.

The bad news is, that the waste from nuclear plants is difficult and dangerous to store. One of the issues being discussed is the option of recycling the spent fuel rods, But recycling is not without its own unique set of risks. Besides being very expensive, the by-product of recycled fuel rods is high grade plutonium, the kind used for nuclear weapons, a very sensitive political playing card. Given the risks involved, many people would not trust our government with the task of baby sitting it. To be truthful, I’m not sure I would, at least not until the leaders we have now can learn how to be big boys and girls and play nice with one another. Don’t hold your breath.

The protests will no doubt return, but in the end, to any clear thinking intelligent person there is no other choice for clean cheap energy. Coupled with the advances in biomass fuels and electric hybrid automobiles and new production techniques in the manufacturing industries, nuclear power is one very attractive viable alternative to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Five years ago there were exactly “zero” power plant applications on the board. As of today, there are 15 and that number is sure to grow. Some surely won’t get built but I have a feeling most will. I remember the nuclear protests of the seventys and eighty’s and to tell you the truth, they were mostly organized by so called grass roots touchy feely uninformed tree huggers. I can tell you one thing for sure, if we don’t fix the greenhouse gas problem in the next 20 or 30 years there won’t be any trees left to hug.

One last thought. In the twenty eight years American nuclear power plants have been operating, there hasn’t been even one death directly attributed to its implementation or use. A pretty impressive record if you ask me. At the same time the logging industry has ravaged our planet right under the noses of the tree huggers lazing right under the trees they are cutting down. How successful have they really been in saving our fragile planet?.

BOB PERRIN 01.01.09

It is with humbled hand and heart that I write these simple words……..

The mere fact that I am still alive after spending fifty eight years in this miraculous place called Earth can only be understood as a testament to our worlds natural ability to heal itself in spite of having suffered through the many attempts man has advanced towards her, to destroy her. I stand here with a reverent respect for the forces that allow me say these words, and stand forever in awe at the power of nature, healing my soul, and lifting my heart. Let no human doubt my sincerity, for we all are merely that, Just human.

Just humans, the overwhelming source of our worlds greatest grief and calamity. Just humans, who at best, are barely tolerable on a very fragile planet and at worst, capable of atrocitys only limited by imaginations. Just humans, who have evolved the ability to believe we stand above it all at the top of the food chain and are eating ourselves into oblivion.

Just humans, who have deluded ourselves into believing we really do matter in the grand scheme of the universe. Just humans, who are perfectly at ease sqaundering limited resources and all the while putting other humans at risk to further our selfish interest in what we mistakenly call progress.

For eons our lovely blue planet as it’s called, has been an ever so gradually warming rock, orbiting through a very dark and unforgiving outer space on its inevitable journey towards another very hot and much larger glowing rock. You with me so far? Good, because it’s getting warmer quicker.

To tell you the raw truth our planet doesn’t need us to survive at all. like I said, It’s a rock and can shed it’s paper thin life preserving atmosphere like a reptile sheds it’s skin, given the right conditions.

We are but temporary guests of our planet . Thank your lucky stars “literally” Things could have been much worse.

Will we cherish it or destroy it? The choice has been left up to us. All of us. Will we set aside our differences long enough to gaze towards the night sky and dream of the possibilitys as our forebearers did, or will we succumb to our selfish human natures? After all we have the best excuse in the world, We’re just human right?

What’s a little blistering radiation from an unforgiving sun anyway right? What the hell can I do about it anyway right?. Oh, and I really like this one, “We have it all under control, we have Congressional Commitees on climate change working on the problems. Oh, now I feel better. Remember I said the choice is ours? Well it is, and you should include yourself in that group.

So Mr. and Mrs. Just human, Take your emerging carbon credit economy, and take your “Well I rode my bike to work today and inflated my tires to exactly 32 p.s.i. to save the planet” and stick them where the sun don’t shine and get real. Those are childish ideas to lull you into a false sense of security so you can keep on working and keep on paying your taxes. Money that by the way, should be spent on “Your” future, not to buy some Congressman’s kid a new jet ski.

Anyway, The point is, if we don’t start building some real serious dialog with some real serious innovative fertile minded designers, engineers and scientists to help kick our oil dependence habit with the Middle East and start to heal our planet real soon, we won’t be able to see the Sun,….. let alone see it shine…