The Nuclear Option

The world in general, and the United States in particular, has reached a crossroads in energy usage and policy. Because in the past fossil fuels have been abundant and, therefore, cheap, they fueled the Western world's industrialization, and later, the transportation revolution with the development of the automobile. The twenty-first century ushered in an awareness that this dependency cannot continue indefinitely. We are poisoning our atmosphere with greenhouse gases and we are using up petroleum reserves faster than new ones are put into production.

The United States has become dependent on other countries supplying us with the petroleum we need since we typically consume more than we produce. If we tried to be self-sufficient, we would only last about 20 years even if we developed all the potential domestic reserves that might be there. At the same time, world demand for oil is growing and world reserves are shrinking while climate change, caused by production of carbon dioxide, will force us to scale back our energy requirements or seek out new energy sources.

Renewable energy sources such as wind, geothermal, hydropower, solar, etc. can take up some of the slack but it is unlikely that they will be able to replace fossil fuel usage in the near term. Nuclear power could provide the energy necessary to move us away from fossil fuels. In the United States there is currently a popular aversion to nuclear power for a variety of reasons, some good and some bad. For nuclear power to expand the way it needs to in order to provide the energy required by the economy, these concerns would have to be addressed, and a sensible national nuclear policy would have to be mapped out.

First and foremost there must be a policy on waste disposal. A nuclear power plant produces power with little or no pollution, but the spent fuel is a highly dangerous material that requires special handling. Vitrification is probably the best technique to use for the final disposal since it fixes the contaminants in the glass matrix to prevent them from entering the environment. A disposal site must be set up and operating before a push to increase the numbers and capacities of nuclear facilities.

For such an expansion of nuclear to make economic sense, the plutonium produced should be extracted and reused as fuel. Using the plutonium as part of a mixed oxide fuel system would reduce the likelihood that terrorists could steal it and use it to make a bomb to a near impossibility.

To become energy independent and begin reducing emissions of greenhouse gases quickly with as little disruption of the economy as possible an expansion of nuclear power production in the United States is necessary and should begin as quickly as possible while giving due diligence to environmental concerns, safety issues and the operation of a long term waste storage system.