Nuclear Energy

Nuclear Energy, Solar, and Tsunamis

So much for the “nuclear renaissance,” said Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post. Until last month's earthquake-triggered disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, even some prominent environmentalists had begun championing nuclear power, portraying it as a means to end our dependence on foreign oil and “significantly mitigate global warming, all at the same time.” President Obama has promoted the addition of nuclear plants in his new energy policy, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was poised to approve the construction of 20 new reactors. The fact is that “every energy source has risks.” Oil rigs sometimes blow up and cause giant spills; coal mines sometimes collapse, killing miners. Adding more solar and wind power, meanwhile, would require claiming vast tracts of land and seascape for giant windmills and vast arrays of solar panels—and overcoming the fierce resistance of the “not in my backyard” crowd.

But let’s also realistically “weigh the risks of every alternative,” said the Chicago Tribune. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels, scientists say, kills 2 million people a year—far more than “all the nuclear incidents worldwide,” including Chernobyl. The possibility of a nuclear accident will always be with us, and it will always be scary, “but not as scary as a world starved for electricity.” Future nuclear power plants in the United States may never be built.

As one of the cheapest sources of electricity, it's loss will be felt by all rate payers across the country. We should all keep in mind that it wasn't the earthquake that caused the problem, it was the devastation of nuclear reactors as well as the collapse of entire communities (up to five miles inward) that resulted from the earthquake created tsunami. With no back up plan to restore power from an offsite source, the outcome was inevitable.

With State and Federal incentives for solar, now may be an excellent time to compare powering your home with solar versus utilizing PG&E and all of their future increases.