McCain Calls for Reactor Construction
As Presidential hopeful John McCain addressed a crowd yesterday in Springfield Mo, he called for construction of 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030 and pledged $2 billion a year to “make clean cole a reality.” There are currently 104 reactors running in the U.S. These reactors account for nearly 20% of the country’s electricity needs.
Every year, these reactors alone spare the atmosphere from the equivalent of nearly all auto emissions in America. Yet for all these benefits, we have not broken ground on a single nuclear plant in over thirty years,” he said. “And our manufacturing base to even construct these plants is almost gone.”
With the $2 billion in federal funds, he said, “We will build the demonstration plants, refine the techniques and equipment, and make clean coal a reality. This single achievement will open vast amounts of our oldest and most abundant resource. And it will deliver not only electricity but jobs to some of the areas hardest hit by our economic troubles.”
McCain has finally taken the step of of having a conservative stance on an issue. This is exactly what this country needs not only right now but for the future. He has laid out a plan for the short term of drilling offshore, and McCain has laid out a plan for the future by the construction of several nuclear reactors.
I will say this however; we should not be waiting for 45 nuclear reactors to be built by 2030. We need to start production now. Our country is already several years behind. It has been over thirty years since the last reactor has been built on U.S soil. The process needs to start now. France satisfies approximately 75% of their electricity needs through nuclear power. This should be the only page we take out of Frances’ playbook.
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Right.. because coal emissions are much more damaging than the radiation left from the waste these plants will produce. Or.. wait… what?
Really, what needs to be done it we need to look at other sources that use what we already have, without making more of a mess. We need to pick something that doesn’t have a ton of waste products pumping out of it.
Wind energy (at micro/household level, not just massive wind props) is an option that’s clean with little waste. Solar cell is ok, but has waste when the cells start to die out after a decade or so. Solar condensers are quite useful, (combined with turbines and air-flow towers) and are being employed in several places already, almost no waste there. Tidal is great too, when done while respecting marine life and avoiding their habitats as best as possible.
As for nukes, there are cask-based systems that can use the radioactive waste we already have. They make electricity (in smaller quantities) and that act as better containers for the gunk than barrels. But they cost more… so why do that?
Building more nuke plants isn’t the answer. Harnessing what’s already out there is.