EnviroHumanImpact

No, I don’t mean a weapons arsenal, but rather an arsenal of nuclear power plants the Republican Presidential candidate (John McCain) says he would like to spend $315 Billion of taxpayers’ money on new nuclear power plants.  

This has gotten very little attention, and it’s understandable why, “drill here, drill now” gets more attention — it hits closer to home for most.  But as (the Bush run) Energy Department has said, there would be very little impact on gas prices from, “drilling here, drilling now,” and in about a decade.  

So it makes sense for the U.S. to shift over to clean, renewable sources of fuel.  Unfortunately, nuclear power is neither clean nor renewable.

Sure, some will say that it is renewable because we can go back and get more fuel from the ground.  Yes, you can, but it is rather finite in quantity and in our ability to extract, concentrate, ship, use, and store waste.  It isn’t a “fossil fuel,” because it is not the concentrated remains of ancient creatures and plants, but rather it is what we could call, a, “mineral fuel,” in that specific elements, rocks, are dug up, concentrated, refined, and shipped in a very environmentally-damaging and energy-intensive project.  

But voters ought to concentrate on this issue.  There’s a reason no one wants a nuclear power plant “in my backyard.”  There are in fact, several.  It’s unsafe to operate, we have seen accidents happen again, and humans are only that — human — meaning that they make mistakes.  Our gain from using nuclear fuel is little when you consider all of the large equipment used to dig it up (or blow the tops off of mountains) to extract, move, refine, and deliver the finished fuel rods to a nuclear power plant.  

Then, there is the risk that terrorists might attack a nuclear power plant causing meltdown and potential irradiation to millions of people.  And how do we store those fuel rods?  At Yucca Mountain?  It’s going to fill up, we have to worry about the long-term effects of concentrating so much radioactive matter into one place (or even into the form of fuel rods, which is enough to cause damage to others).  And how do we ship all of this matter there? 

If McCain thinks America has that kind of money for nuclear power plants, we don’t.  At about $7 a pop and ten or more years to build a nuclear power plant (aside from the risks listed above), we just cannot afford his plant.  

We have that kind of money for clean, renewable options, such as wind, solar, and hydro power.  We have that kind of money for increased fuel efficiency.

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