Op-Ed Contributors

US wakes from nuclear energy slumber

By David Kan Ting (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-13 08:17

It certainly won't be. Obama is asking Congress for more funds to help finance nuclear plant construction. Without these government guarantees, it is virtually impossible for the private sector to invest in this capital-intensive and high-risk business. The two reactors in Georgia will cost an estimated $14.5 billion.

In announcing his decision, Obama said he embraces nuclear power as a clean energy source and as a way to increase employment. His decision was a bitter disappointment to environmental groups, anti-nuclear activists and "progressive" elements opposed to nuclear power.

The development of green energy is one of Obama's major campaign promises. "To create more clean energy jobs, " he said in his latest State of the Union address, "we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives, and that means building a new generation of clean nuclear power plants in this country."

The two new reactors in Georgia of 1.1 gigawatts each will go online in 2016 and 2017. Nineteen applications for federal loan guarantees are pending. The United States is expected to add four or six reactors by 2020. Not a speedy pace, but at least it got the ball rolling again.

China's all-out rush to embrace nuclear energy and Obama's decision to follow suit means both countries consider nuclear energy clean and the energy of the future.

However, the key questions remain: Is nuclear energy clean? Is it safe? Is it expensive?

It is all relative. For example, the Three Mile Island accident did not kill a single person, but burning coal and coal mining kill tens of thousands a year. Which is safer? China's 11 nuclear reactors have been running without safety problems, and today's new generation of reactors are much safer and more advanced than they were 30 years ago.

Is nuclear energy clean? Obama, for one, says it is. Unlike thermal power plants using fossil fuels, nuclear power plants do not spew black smoke or pollutants that are harmful to the environment and to human health.

How about radioactive waste? Where can we store the highly hazardous spent fuel? The French, whose energy mix is 70 percent nuclear, reduced the volume of spent fuel by as much as 97 percent by re-processing, and store all their high-level waste underneath the floor of one room in a plant.

It isn't perfect, but that should not be a deterrent to a greater good. The Chinese have a saying: yin ye feishi, which means, "don't refuse to eat because of hiccups".

A true leader makes the right decision while a politician makes the popular decision.

It appears that Obama has the audacity to make the right decision to reinvigorate America's nuclear industry that has fallen behind the rest of the world after a 30-year lull. There should be no doubt that the US will catch up in no time because it was America that ushered in the Atomic Age 65 years ago with a bang.

The author is a Chinese-born journalist residing in North America.

(China Daily 04/13/2010 page9)

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