FINALLY, THE nation is moving back to the future of alternative energy.
It took a new energy crisis and the emergence of climate change as a global issue to persuade U.S. leaders to embrace — in some cases, warily — nuclear power. Unfortunately, the lingering effects of Three Mile Island Syndrome lasted almost 30 years, causing the country that originally harnessed the atom to fall well behind Europe and Japan in developing peaceful uses for nuclear energy.
But with the price of carbon-based energy soaring and the search for ways to cut carbon emissions intensifying, nuclear power advocates have suddenly found powerful new allies in Washington, including the two men vying for the presidency.
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, recently called for a major expansion of the nuclear power industry. Sen. McCain wants to see 45 new nuclear facilities come on line by 2030.
Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. McCain's likely Democratic foe, seems to be slowly warming up to nuclear power. During a meeting with the nation's governors last week, he said nuclear power was "not a panacea," but added that it was worth investigating with an eye toward future development.
That's hardly a ringing endorsement, but it's an improvement over the traditional anti-nuclear militancy of his party's left wing. Congressional Democrats also are quietly moving toward a more pro-nuclear stance. Many environmental activists aligned with the Democrats now realize there is no other energy alternative that has the potential to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The 2005 energy bill passed by Congress re-opened the door to nuclear power by providing federal loan guarantees to help companies with the massive cost of building new reactors. Currently, proposals for 15 new reactors are moving through the regulatory pipeline.
That falls far short of what the country needs to reduce pollution and escape dependence on foreign energy resources. According to a government study, if the U.S. power industry expanded its nuclear footprint to the same size as France's nuclear power industry, which provides 80 percent of that country's electricity, CO2 emissions in the United States would fall to the level specified by the Kyoto climate treaty.
Currently, nuclear plants supply 20 percent of the nation's electricity. The presidential candidates and congressional leaders should set a goal of more than doubling that percentage in the next 20 years.
Congress can help by removing regulatory obstacles and speeding up the glacial process of licensing nuclear facilities. In licensing and regulating nuclear plants, the government should take into account that the commercial nuclear power industry has a better safety record than any other power-generating industry.
The lack of nuclear waste disposal sites is the biggest obstacle to the growth of the nuclear industry. Obstructionists continue to block the development of a national waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Nuclear advocates may be stymied if they fail to make an all-out push for the Yucca Mountain project.
Fifty years ago, nuclear power was considered the wave of the future. But a lot of Americans are just now finding out that it's the cleanest, most efficient alternative to fossil fuels.
With the Three Mile Island hysteria finally behind us, the nation is ready to go nuclear, big-time.
