The best energy source

True story: a couple years back a Greenpeace-type activist came to my door asking for donations to shut down a nearby energy plant, or clean water, or something. I asked her why environmentalists oppose nuclear energy. The predictable response: nuclear waste. I said that coal-fired plants release more radioactive isotopes into the air and that at least the radioactive waste was contained and could be stored at Yucca Mountain. She responded by saying that the area was an ancient Indian burial ground which was complete fiction. I waved my hand at her – there’s just no talking to those people.

In terms of a combination of reliability and friendliness to the environment, there is no better energy source than nuclear which currently accounts for one-fifth of all energy production in the United States. Now the industry is promoting the green side of atomic energy: “Nuclear plants say they deserve credit for ‘green’ energy”:

As the nuclear power industry stages a nationwide comeback, New England is emerging as a major battleground in the industry's campaign to be recognized as a ''green" energy source.

Last year, the Seabrook reactor in New Hampshire became the first nuclear plant in the country to win credits for not polluting the air. Emboldened by that success, nuclear plant owners are now pressing to receive similar credits under a nine-state plan to reduce greenhouse gases.

Nuclear plants now provide about 20 percent of US electrical power and generate no acid rain or greenhouse gases -- unlike coal or gas plants, which can spew millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other gases into the air each year.

New reactor designs are “Chernobyl-proof” but there is so much fear over nuclear that a new reactor has not been ordered in America for over twenty years. This is going to cause a strain on energy delivery as old reactors are de-commissioned over the next generation. We can re-think nuclear or settle on burning more coal.