Recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took to Instagram and offered some nuanced thoughts about nuclear power. Her observations raised eyebrows since Ocasio-Cortez was the leading sponsor of the Green New Deal, legislation that would have crushed nuclear power in the U.S.
It seems Ocasio-Cortez isn’t the only Democrat waking up to the importance of nuclear energy. The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California, for example, which was slated for closure, has been extended past 2025 by the federal government. The decision to extend this plant was made with the apparent approval of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The problem was that not enough solar and wind energy has been developed to make up for the loss of the nuclear power plant.
The environmental Left opposed nuclear power even before the Three Mile Island accident caused concern about its safety. However, fears about climate change and the growing realization that the world cannot run on renewable energy alone has caused a reassessment of nuclear energy and its potential to lead us into a carbon-free future.
Nuclear has several advantages over solar and wind. First, nuclear power runs 24/7 without the need for battery backup. It takes far less land to build on than renewables. And when one factors in fabrication costs, nuclear actually has a lower carbon footprint than renewable energy.
Nuclear power is also better for wildlife. Besides the often-told stories of birds being destroyed by the blades of wind turbines, Bloomberg reports that the site of an offshore wind farm off Cape Cod has been the scene of a rash of dead whales washing onshore. The link between the wind farm and the whale deaths is under dispute, but it appears that desire for clean energy is in conflict with the need for animal conservation.
Robert Zubrin, an engineer and writer better known for his advocacy of Mars settlements, recently published a book on nuclear power titled The Case for Nukes . The book is filled with a lot of history and science and is well worth the read. It also has some interesting policy suggestions that the federal and various state governments would be wise to adopt.
Key among Zubrin’s proposals is regulatory reform. A combination of a mind-numbing regulatory process and the ability of anti-nuclear environmentalists to impede construction of new nuclear reactors in court has artificially increased the cost of nuclear power. Streamlining the regulatory process and litigation reform that would prevent outsiders from gumming up the works would go a long way toward creating a nuclear renaissance.
Zubrin also suggests getting serious about disposing of and/or recycling nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is an often-cited problem by anti-nuclear activists. However, many technological solutions exist for dealing with waste from nuclear reactors.
Zubrin does not have much use for climate change hysteria, even though going nuclear would go a long way toward cutting down human-caused carbon emissions. His case for nuclear power is a far more compelling one. He believes that nuclear power, and later fusion, is the key to ensuring human prosperity in the future.
Newer nuclear technology, such as the one being developed by TerraPower , uses molten sodium rather than water as a cooling agent, and is thus far less susceptible to a catastrophic meltdown such as the one that happened at Three Mile Island. Thus, the case against nuclear power is becoming less and less defensible.
For human civilization to thrive, electricity generation must expand exponentially. If the developing world is to be granted the benefits of modern technology, we need more power. If we want more electric cars, we need more power to charge them. Direct carbon capture from the air and desalination of ocean water to make the parched areas of the world bloom requires more power.
Considering the very real problems, environmental and otherwise, that renewable energy is beset with, ending support for solar and wind in favor of nuclear power may well be a worthwhile option to consider.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM RESTORING AMERICA
Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and energy policy, has published a political study of space exploration titled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond , and, most recently, Why is America Going Back to the Moon? He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Hill, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, among other venues.
