Considering Nuclear Power

I’ve followed the career of Patrick Moore, a cofounder of Greenpeace, with interest. He led the organization for 15 years before becoming a critic of the American environmental movement. He has been speaking publicly about nuclear power over the past year, and I’ve seen him raise several points worth contemplating.

1.) It is a mistake to think of nuclear weapons. There is also nuclear medicine, which uses radioactive isotopes to treat millions of people every year, with isotopes produced in nuclear reactors. The processes of production are very different, and one needs to be a professional to speak knowledgeably. Unfortunately, sensationalism and misinformation dominate, especially at the emotional level. Nuclear power is used safely and efficiently, with France being the prime example.

2). Nuclear energy is the only technology aside from fossil fuels available as a large-scale and continuous power source. Wind and solar energy are intermittent and unreliable. Further, the cost of solar is very high, as California has discovered (3 billion spent so far with little to show for it).

3.) France produces 80 percent of its electricity with nuclear. Sweden produces 50 percent (the rest hydro). Both have reasonable energy costs; gas costs at least three times as much and both wind and solar are at least five times as expensive, as measured in cents per kilowatt-hour.

4.) Regarding waste, Moore says it is possible to establish recycling for nuclear fuel to less than 10 percent of what it would be without recycling. About 50 percent of the nuclear energy being produced in the U.S. currently comes from dismantled Russian warheads.

5). Regarding proliferation, it is not necessary to have a reactor to make a weapon. It is easier and cheaper to make one by enriching uranium with centrifuge technology. Reactors, in other words, are not the problem. The evil of humanity is.

6). There will be about fifty nuclear plants in the U.S. in the near future. Opposition is falling as more people come to understand the large upside to this power source.

Sounds promising to me. Thoughts?