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DOE's Bodman at Nuclear Energy Assembly

By Eric McErlain
Yesterday morning, Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman addressed the conference. President Bush has been very supportive of our industry, even more so ever since he said the words, "safe, clean, nuclear energy" during this year's State of the Union address.

Secretary Bodman made it pretty clear where the Administration stands:
As [energy] demand continues to climb, we must keep in mind that the fossil fuels upon which we increasingly depend are finite resources that will not last forever. As time goes on, they will become more and more expensive to find and produce. In addition, our traditional ways of using fossil fuels – burning them in power-plant boilers and in vehicle engines – causes pollution… such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury… as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
After reading that, I have to say there doesn't seem to be a whole lot that proponents of peak oil and peak energy would disagree with. Granted, their policy prescriptions diverge more often than not with the Bush Administration, but there seems to be a consensus developing about the scope and nature of the nation's energy problem. Which is exactly why we're trying to reach out to environmentalists via NEI Nuclear Notes.

Further . . .
Clearly, we need to develop new sources of energy that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels… and help protect the environment. Under the guidance of the President’s National Energy Policy, we are working to develop these new energy sources. They include hydrogen fuel cells to power our vehicles… more-effective ways to produce wind and solar power… technologies to remove pollution and greenhouse emissions from coal… and improving our energy-efficiency across the economy, to recover the vast amounts of energy we currently waste.

But while we work to develop these new and better ways to produce and use energy for the future… there is one technology already in place that can reliably generate large amounts of electricity with no dependence on fossil fuels, no pollution, and no greenhouse emissions. And that technology is nuclear power.
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