Skip to main content

Wrapping It Up at Potential Energy

I love posts like this one from Gia Milinovich at Potential Energy:
When I started Potential Energy in May my secret hope was that I'd be able to find some kind of anti-nuclear info that stood up to scrutiny. I was hoping that I'’d uncover something that backed up all of those bad things I've heard about nuclear power my whole life.

I failed.
I don't know about anybody else, but I live for moments like this one. Here's her conclusion:
I would imagine a lot of previously anti-nuclear people would find it difficult to look at nuclear power without their pre-conceived ideas getting in the way. It wasn't very easy for me, but I forced myself to look at all of the issues in a way I never had before.

I started out leaning towards anti-nuclear and have become a supporter.
In the end, that's all our industry is really asking of folks -- just give us a chance to talk about our real record. Let us separate the science from the hysteria, and find some common ground where we can generate the electricity we need in a way that's affordable and environmentally sensitive.

Is nuclear the only answer? No, not by a longshot. But it ought to be a part of any answer that we come up with when it comes to confronting the challenges of energy policy.

One last note: I want to thank Gia, Kat and Caspar from Potential Energy for allowing us to participate in the debate. They promised to keep an open mind about nuclear energy, and they stuck with that promise. And thanks to all the readers from NEI Nuclear Notes who stopped by and contributed as well. And while we may not have completely convinced everybody, I'm grateful for their efforts.

Technorati tags: , , , , , ,

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should