'Let's Split Atoms, Not Hairs'

Today's edition of Investor's Business Daily features an editorial titled "Hell No, We Won't Glow!" It rebukes incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for declaring Yucca Mountain "dead right now" because of his unjustified "Not in my backyard" attitude.

On safety:

It's quite possibly the safest, most geologically stable and most studied place on Earth.

On transportation:

Yucca opponents have hysterically described the transportation of nuclear waste to Yucca as "mobile Chernobyls," ignoring that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission-approved casks in which the waste will be transported are virtually indestructible.

On nuclear energy's clean-air value:

Were it not for nuclear power, which produced 19.4 percent of our electricity last year, the air we breathe would have contained 3.43 million more tons of sulfur dioxide, an additional 1.11 million tons of nitrogen oxide and 696 million more tons of carbon dioxide.

And finally, on U.S. energy policy:

We can worry about imaginary threats of nuclear energy or the real dangers of fossil fuel pollution. An energy plan that does not involve continued and even increased use of nuclear power is no plan at all. And even if we closed all nuclear plants tomorrow, the waste problem would remain. We need nuclear power. We need Yucca Mountain. Let’s split atoms, not hairs.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Environment, Energy, Politics, Yucca Mountain, Harry Reid