The NEI Morning Clip File

Here are some of the news clips we're reading at NEI this morning. In this morning's Burlington Free Press Jim Burbo writes that his home state of Vermont should assess nuclear energy in a rational manner:

The only way that we can make Vermont energy-independent in the near future is to establish a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant to reuse Vermont Yankee's spent fuel and to build a pair of 1000-mw nuclear power plants to use its product (one should be in northwestern Vermont where the preponderance of energy demand resides).

And as for the claim that nuclear energy is not "green," which I take to mean that it somehow degrades the environment, it is evident that it produces no air or water pollution or greenhouse gases. Nuclear has a forty year safety record superior to any other form of electric generation, and does not depend on foreign sources of oil or gas. Also it will, in the future, be essential to the transition to a hydrogen transportation economy (automobiles and trucks running on hydrogen rather than gasoline or diesel fuel), since electricity is needed to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Australia's Federal Science Minister Brendan Nelson feels that his country should implement nuclear power:

Federal Science Minister Brendan Nelson believes nuclear energy is likely to be used to power Australian homes within 50 years.

Dr Nelson said the equivalent of 8,000 coal-fired power stations needed to be replaced globally in order to get greenhouse gas emission levels back below those of the pre-industrialised world over the next half a century.

He believes the use of nuclear power for domestic consumption is the best way to make this happen, including in Australia.

"In my lifetime, I think it's likely," Dr Nelson told the National Press Club.

In a recent interview, New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord
said that he will pursue an increased implementation of nuclear energy for Canada:

New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord will seek the support of his colleagues in other provinces and territories for a comprehensive nuclear-energy strategy for Canada at this week's Council of the Federation meeting.

"I think nuclear has to be part of our future," Mr. Lord said in an interview before heading to Banff, where provincial and territorial leaders will meet for three days this week to discuss a number of issues, including energy supply and postsecondary education.

Mr. Lord said it is important for Canada to diversify its energy supply, so that it is less dependent on gas and oil. "The great thing about nuclear is it is a homegrown source of energy," he said. "The uranium comes from Canada. The technology is Canadian."

Kurt Moore of Formulate Affinity explained why he feels nuclear energy is a crucial part of the solution to our energy problem in today's post:

As far as efficient methods of power generation goes, nuclear power takes the cake, and then some. Fission of an atom of uranium produces 10 million times the energy produced by the combustion of an atom of carbon from coal. That's correct, it is 10 million times more efficient that our most widely used form of energy creation. With that efficiency, comes the added bonus of there being no strip mining of our planet. I know, the gears are turning, with something that has so much potential energy, what about the waste?

Nuclear power is arguably the most clean of all forms of power generation. Most people wrongly assume that massive amounts of radioactive waste are sitting around waiting to explode. Or worse, that excess waste has no place to go. The excess waste is in large part a valid argument, however, it pales in comparison to the ozone depleting waste carbon based fuels create.

Come back this afternoon for more news from the NEI Clip File.

EDITOR'S NOTE: After spending a couple of weeks as an intern with NEI, Duncan is going to spend the rest of the Summer getting ready to return to James Madison University in September. Tomorrow will be his last day with NEI Nuclear Notes, and he's been a real help to us here during his brief tenure. Thanks, Duncan.

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