Obama Goes Nuclear?

France gets over 75% of its power from nuclear reactors, the U.S. just 19%.  Worldwide, nuclear power provided just 2.1% of all the energy produced.  In America, our nuclear power plants are beginning to outlive their useful life.  The oldest plant still in operation went online in 1967 and the last plant to go online did so in 1996 but over 50% of all nuclear power plants in operation are older than 24 years.

It seems as though President Obama, who had not necessarily opposed nuclear power (but has not made any effort to push for new reactors) might be changing his tune now that Cap and Trade is dead:

Obama singled oleavut nuclear power in his State of the Union address, and his spending plan for the next budget year is expected to include billions of more dollars in federal guarantees for new nuclear reactors. This emphasis reflects both the political difficulties of passing a climate bill in an election year and a shift from his once cautious embrace of nuclear energy.

He’s now calling for a new generation of nuclear power plants.

That’s great and this is something I can support however Obama has created a problem for himself if he wants more reactors to go online:

His administration has pledged to close Yucca Mountain, the planned multibillion-dollar burial ground in the Nevada desert for high-level radioactive waste. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has been criticized for his slow rollout of $18.5 billion in loan guarantees to spur investment in new nuclear power plants, and the administration killed a Bush-era proposal to reprocess nuclear fuel.

Currently, spent radioactive rods are held in holding tanks on site at each reactor.  The problem is, these holding tanks were never meant to serve as longterm storage facilities and many are degrading and pose potential security risks.  Yucca Mountain is really the only alternative for storing these materials but, considering Obama’s 2011 budget defunds Yucca Mountain, how can new plants be built if there will be no place to store their spent radioactive rods?

Obama appears to be realizing that from a political and a capacitive point, “alternative” energy sources like solar and wind are simply absurd.  Of all the potential energy sources America can produce, nuclear remains the best option.

Call it the politics of reality.  Obama and Liberals keep calling for CO2 reductions (as if CO2 has anything to go with “global warming”) and “green energy.”  They refuse to allow oil companies to drill for oil in America despite the fact that we are sitting on huge reserves.  Alaska has been placed off limits and so have coastal waters.  Coal is too dirty, wind and solar too expensive and unreliable.  That only leaves nuclear.

Many Americans remember Three Mile Island and Chernobyl and, as a result, are hesitant to endorse atomic power but, as stated above, nuclear power will be the only way to meet America’s growing energy needs in the future.  France has become reliant on nuclear power and it has been a smart policy that has served that country’s energy needs very well indeed.

I predict Obama’s endorsement of nuclear power, if it is sincere, to fall flat because powerful Liberal special interest groups oppose it:

Friends of the Earth, called it “a kick in the gut.”

What will likely happen is, as it becomes clear to everybody that nuclear is the only way forward there will be a gradual coming to terms with reality.  The problem is nuclear power plants are very expensive to build, nobody wants one in their backyard, and it takes many years for a plant to go from the planning stage to the power generation stage.  In order to secure our energy needs for the future action needs to start right now.

In the fickle environment of Washington, D.C. prompt action (unless it’s pork barrel spending) never happens quickly.

Let’s hope President Obama can get things moving now.

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