Nuclear Power Yay or Nay?

Is it about time for nuclear power?  Iowa with our wind power initiative is great, but until we get some way to store the energy we will need something else to help with our energy needs.  Has it been here all along?  Could the answer be nuclear?  Go look up the safety records; it is not nearly as bad as we have been led to believe. There have been three major reactor accidents in the history of civil nuclear power –

• Three Mile Island, (USA 1979) where the reactor was severely damaged but radiation was contained and there were no adverse health or environmental consequences

• Chernobyl (Ukraine 1986) where the destruction of the reactor by steam explosion and fire killed 31 people and had significant health and environmental consequences. The death toll has since increased about 5

•  Fukushima. (Japan 2011) where three old reactors (together with a fourth) were written off and the effects of loss of cooling due to a huge tsunami were inadequately contained.

How about wind power? How does it fare compared to the perfect record of the American nuclear power industry?  Believe it or not, there is an organization, the Caithness Windfarm Information Forum, that keeps data on wind-power-related accidents and/or design problems. Caithness is based in Great Britain, where homeowners have already grown tired of the noise and other wind-turbine-generated problems. Their "Summary of Wind Turbine Accident Data to 31 December 2008"  reports 41 worker fatalities.  Most, not unexpectedly, were from falling  as they are typically working on turbines some 30 stories above the ground. In addition, Caithness attributed the deaths of 16 members of the public to wind-turbine accidents.

Now what to do with the waste, there are actually many solutions out there.  But the most common is storing the spent fuel rods in lead capsules then encasing that in re-enforced concrete casks that are stored on site for a few years then transported to a permanent facility.  There has been talk of loading them on a rocket storage ship and send it into the sun.  That may be a little ambitious.

In short with everyone in agreement we should get away from our dependence on foreign oil, wind and solar while they sound great, they are just not there yet.  Right now in the US we have just more than 100 plants in operation, some since 1957.  In Europe and around the world Nuclear power is common and even welcomed.  Maybe it is time for the US to invest in some new plants to welcome something that has been here for a long time.