Inherently Dangerous Technology Cannot Be Made Inherently Safe

The Too cheap to meter comment was made more than 50 years ago, it's time to let that one go.

The so called clean alternatives are for the most part unreliable 'cause the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow all of the time.

If you want to displace any power source it should be coal which emits Carbon dioxide and radioactive material in greater amounts than nuclear ever will.

David Andersen of CT 5:34PM February 05, 2012

The anti-nuclear lobby with funding help from the hydrocarbon industry doesn't seem to understand that they can't deliver on clean cost effective safe energy without deleterious trade-offs to enviro or humans. Solar energy has shown that corruption plagues the industry and shortfalls in electrical baseloading capacity are not there without help from the hydrocarbon industry.

Energy policy reality is HUGE LIGHT WATER & HEAVY WATER reactors in North Am. need to be phased out and ratepayers now need to get KWh rates drastically reduced. Public utilities generating nuke based electricity should show customers a cut rate to electrical bills to half. SMALL VARIABLE FUELED MODULAR NUCLEAR REACTORS is the future even for the U.S.

Tailored clean small efficient proliferation free reactors should be the trend.

Bruce Behrhorst 2:33PM February 04, 2012

It is interesting that people who claim to be interested in safety, environmental impact, and affordable of power ignore the actual record of nuclear power.

The safety of the power industry and nuclear in particular. In my 40 years working in nuclear power no one has even been hurt by radiation following US standards. While avoiding accidents is one component of safety, designing power plants so that no one gets hurt if an accident occurs.

A record natural disaster hit Japan and damaged six reactors beyond the economic cost to repair them. As a result of flooding 3 reactor cores were damaged releasing fission products and hydrogen.

Not exposing children to I-131 requires simple precautions. Something is only 'inherently dangerous' if injury can not be prevented.

Again, the safety record is perfect. No one in the US has been hurt by radiation as a result of making electricity.

LCA shows that nuclear has the lowest environmental impact of any source of electricity. That is the record. You should not eat nuclear waste anymore than you should eat the hazardous waste from making solar panels.

Finally, the record of nuclear is that it is very affordable. Michael Mariotte talks about rate shock. When I joined the navy, my mother paid about 25 cents/gallon for heating oil but it was more than a dollar a gallon when I got out. As a young sailor working for Nixon and Carter, I do remember inflation and the cost of energy. My fist job out of the navy was at a commercial nuke plant. When it went on line, our electric rates went down because the 'expensive' new nuke plant replaced oil for generation.

While many large nukes got built for less than $300 million, many got caught on the wrong side of expected and very high inflation.

Since the 104 US nuke plants provide 20% of our electricity, the cost of power is mitigated for everyone by lowering the demand for fossil fuels. Increasing the amount of base load nuclear power to 30% of the mix will have a high capital cost but slow the cost increases for coal and natural gas.

Nuclear power is affordable, safe, and environmentally friendly. That is the record.

Kit P of VA 9:07AM February 04, 2012