Nuclear power challenges and alternatives

In the 1980s Long Island politicians closed and dismantled a brand new nuclear power plant at Shoreham. The reasons given were that with conservation the region didn’t need a new power plant, and if the avoidance of a nuclear accident saved even one human life, closing down the plant was worth the cost. However, since then the Long Island Power Authority has built several new fossil-fuel power plants on Long Island and is now considering building one in Yaphank. Most people don’t realize that burning a ton of fossil fuel puts more than a ton of toxic waste into the air: nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, ozone, acid rain, smog, and carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas. The Environmental Protection Agency says that the toxic waste from fossil fuels kills tens of thousands of people in the US each year.

In the January 2007 issue of Physics Today (page 13) , Walter Scheider writes, “When all costs are accounted, nuclear energy is not cost-competitive with fossil energy.” But fossil fuel is not the answer for the future. In that same issue (page 14), Alan Robock writes, “The most important reason why nuclear power is a bad idea is that it results in nuclear weapons proliferation.” The latest nation to test nuclear weapons was North Korea. The next one may be Iran. Does anyone think they got their weapons from US power plants?