A renewed case for American nuclear power

Colin Hannifin

Columnist

One of the largest earthquakes in the past century rocked Japan just over a week ago. A terrifyingly large tsunami followed, adding a new level of tragedy and heartbreak to catastrophe.
Perhaps most frightening, a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, a jurisdiction of Japan’s Tōhoku region, has been breached. Talking heads and politicians alike have begun throwing out the words “meltdown” and making comparisons to Chernobyl. An event like this puts nuclear power everywhere under a microscope. The thought and dream of nuclear power has certainly come under scrutiny here in the US, as many are calling for reviews of safety procedures and even the cessation of current plans for construction until everything can be reviewed. Nuclear energy, however, remains the best option for weaning ourselves off foreign oil in the short term.
People are fearful because of the events that befell Japan. In fact, this incident stands as a testament to nuclear power’s safety. Japan has 54 nuclear reactors operating, all of which survived a 9.0-magnitude earthquake. One faltered when the seven-meter-high tsunami washed ashore and took out the back up diesel engines that ran the reactors’ cooling system. The real problem is that the engines were housed in a basement, and the intakes and exhausts were not blocked. Yes, there may be a “nuclear meltdown” in the sense that the fuel has lost its coolant and is now melting; but the radiation that has escaped is far below that of what was experienced at Chernobyl; the likelihood of sustained radiation poisoning as a result of this “nuclear meltdown” are slim.
Now is not the time to lose faith in nuclear power. As gas prices are spiking above $3.50 a gallon, we need to get off foreign oil more than ever. Solar and wind energy are great alternative energies, but have yet to prove that they can be produced in large quantities at a price affordable to the mainstream. The only real alternative is nuclear power.
As any energy source, nuclear power does have its drawbacks, but as I have written before, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Just a tiny bit of fuel can give energy to thousands for years, the radioactive waste can be recycled so that 95 percent of that waste is reusable, and modern reactors are chock full of safety measures and fail safes—as Japan has shown us. Thousands are dead or missing in Japan, but not one case has been because of the failure of the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Most of the radiation has been contained, and the radiation outside of the reactor peaked at 11 millisieverts per hour—approximately the same as having a CT scan. This obviously is not healthy, but it is far below what the media would have you believe. A cooling system is meant to be reinstalled in a short period of time and, hopefully, the reactor can begin to recover.
Thankfully, President Obama also sees the light in nuclear power. His 2012 budget calls for $36 million to be loaned to jump-start the process of building some new nuclear power plants. This is a stance, though many have now called it into question, that he seems prepared to stand by as do several members of Congress. Though Japan’s nuclear woes are certainly to be noted—back-up generators in earthquake and tsunami-prone areas should not be in the basement—they should also be reassuring to those who doubt nuclear power.

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