IBD Edirorials ^ | June 11, 2012
Energy: A green administration blocks the safe storage of nuclear waste and refuses even to acknowledge nuclear power has a future. But after the GOP House votes to open a safe site, the nuclear debate has been reopened.
Actually "waste" is an inaccurate term for the spent nuclear fuel rods still accumulating at above-ground fuel storage sites around the country, many near major cities. Spent nuclear fuel is a renewable resource that, in generating energy after being reprocessed, emits no greenhouse gasses.
But wait, critics shout, what about Fukushima and Chernobyl?
Certainly Russian incompetence and Japanese carelessness produced tragic results.
But considering that these same critics claim fossil fuels are ushering in planetary doom via climate change, shouldn't a greenhouse gas-free power source be reconsidered, one that to this day continues to provide around 20% of our power and safely powers our aircraft carriers and submarines?
Even if we don't build another nuclear power plant, spent fuel rods from existing facilities will continue to accumulate.
The Obama administration and folks like Nevada Democrat Sen. Harry Reid — whose state is home to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear storage site — don't want to have a safe storage facility, fearing it would usher in more nuclear plants.
By a vote of 326-81, including 98 Democrats, the House on Wednesday approved an amendment by Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., to the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2013. It allocates $10 million for salaries and expenses for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to complete the licensing process for Yucca Mountain, something that has been stopped dead in its tracks by the Obama administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
