Monday, July 21, 2008

Europe Embraces the Atom

It seems that the Europeans are finally starting to understand that nuclear power is one of the few short term solutions if you truly want to reduce carbon emissions.

All over the world, nuclear power is making a comeback. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has just commissioned eight new reactors, and says there's "no upper limit" to the number Britain will build in the future. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has challenged her country's program to phase out 17 nuclear reactors by 2020, saying it will be impossible to deal with climate change without them. China and India are building nuclear power plants; France and Russia, both of whom have embraced the technology, are fiercely competing to sell them the hardware.

This article also has some interesting facts on nuclear power that needs to be highlighted any time nuclear power is mentioned. First you can't turn a nuclear reactor into a giant bomb since the uranium in the reactor hasn't been enriched yet. Also even if a plane crashes into a nuclear plant it won't cause it to explode or even have its cooling tanks get dented.

Finally nuclear waste is almost 95% recyclable and the rest could easily be stored in one place under guard. We might even find a use for it 50-100 years down the line depending on what new technologies come along. Most of the environmentalist opposition to nuclear waste is based on bad science. It is so hypocritical of the anti-nuke lobby to be so convinced about global warming but are in such opposition to something that can actually help us combat it.

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