Clean Energy Insight - Moving Energy Forward

( By Logan Dernoshek ) [Approx. Read Time: 1 minute]

In an article published Thursday, July 23rd in the Columbia Daily Tribune, journalist T.J Greaney described his tour of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For those of you who don’t know, Oak Ridge is the modern day Nuclear Mecca. Cutting edge research is happening there everyday. As Mr. Greaney explains it, “Basically, Oak Ridge is Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for nerds.” One major project occurring at Oak Ridge currently is finding better ways to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The point of the plant tour was to demonstrate the cutting edge research and technology coming out of Oak Ridge. However, Mr. Greaney makes some interesting observations in his piece.

“Suddenly, instead of thinking about the energy breakthrough, we were all picturing mushroom clouds.”

“This, I’ve realized, is the curse of nuclear power. The nuclear industry has a safety record over the past 30 years that, by most accounts, has been stellar. Nuclear power is the most potent carbon-free power source on the planet in an age when everyone is worried about carbon footprints.”

“The specter of meltdowns and weapons use hangs darkly over the science.”

“But my reaction shows just how fearful many of us still are of nuclear power. We just don’t understand it. If a nuclear renaissance is ever going to occur, we’re going to have to work hard to educate ourselves, and the industry is going to have to keep setting the bar for safety higher and higher.”

Mr. Greaney is correct. If the Nuclear industry is to win the good fight, we must continue to educate the public about its benefits while consistently exceeding safety standards.

( By Eric Danner ) [Approx. Read Time: 1.5 minutes]

It is always refreshing to see a large publication raising questions about why nuclear power is not a larger part of the discussion of America’s energy future.  It is a reassuring feeling to believe that there are journalists, other media outlets, and members of the general public who are starting to discover and embrace the facts about the current climate of the energy industry in America, and nuclear power’s place in its immediate future.

This article is from the Chicago Tribune and quite simply raises fundamental questions about why something that seems so obvious to some is not obvious to others.  It becomes increasingly frustrating when the individuals who make the decisions which affect our country’s future are the same individuals who seem to be the least aware of the critical role that nuclear must play in the power-generating and economic future of the country.

The following is a short excerpt from the article:

“Refusing to build or use existing nuclear plants here in Illinois and across this nation could result in a substantial loss of this country’s standard of living, while keeping us overly dependent on foreign countries for oil, which is the exact opposite from what the Waxman-Markey bill promises.”

It is particularly interesting that the creation of additional nuclear power in Illinois to support the future energy need is not obvious to the state politicians there.  Perhaps it has simply slipped their minds that their home state has the most commercial nuclear reactors of any state in the country.

( By Carrington Dillon ) [Approx. Read Time: 2.5 minutes]

The News & Advance from Lynchburg, VA recently provided a short re-cap of the recent Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade Bill that passed in the House of Representatives.  In this article, the News & Advance noted that Nuclear Power wasn’t given its due in the Bill’s pages.  The newspaper from Virginia also encouraged readers to contact their Senators (Mark Warner and Jim Webb) and encourage them to revise the Senate version of the Bill to include more provisions that recognize that more Nuclear Power is needed for this country to gain energy independence and greenhouse gas reduction goals.  See the article here.

“As initially crafted by Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman, of California, and Edward Markey, of Massachusetts, HR 2454 contained no mention whatsoever of the role of nuclear power in America’s energy future. For a major piece of legislation designed to plot America’s 21st century energy roadmap and address concerns about climate change, that omission was shocking, to say the least…

…so far as nuclear energy is concerned, the bill is woefully lacking. Many people in the environmental community become apoplectic at the very mention of the word “nuclear,” with visions of Three Mile Island in their heads.

The bill is now in the hands of the U.S. Senate where, perhaps, more rational thinking will emerge.

For America to reach the energy goals set forth in the bill, especially those on carbon emissions and renewable generation, more power will have to be generated by nuclear plants. It’s that simple. The nation’s generating capacity is stretch to the limits today, with coal doing much of the heavy lifting. But coal is also the biggest source of carbon emissions.

Conservation, wind generation, biomass generation and any other niche source of power simply will not meet the nation’s growing needs. Nuclear has to be the linch pin of America’s energy future…

So start calling and e-mailing Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb (warner.senate.gov and webb.senate.gov). Tell Virginia’s two U.S. senators that the energy bill needs some serious revisions and that nuclear power needs a bigger presence.

Time’s a’wasting.”

Thank you, News & Advance.  You people from Virginia–get on it.