Common Sense About Nuclear Power

Writing in NRO's Planet Gore, William Tucker brings some solid facts and refreshing common sense to the ongoing national debate about nuclear power. It seems that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is faced with an imminent decision about whether or not to renew the operating license of New Jersey's Oyster Creek nuclear plant. Says Tucker, Go Ahead, Close Oyster Creek.

Part of his argument involves the "clean energy" alternatives to nuclear touted by the enviro-extremists. Here's a pull quote:

Anti-nuclear activists dream that nuclear and coal can be replaced by wind, solar, and other “renewable” things. That’s because nobody has seen what these plants would look like. A 45-story windmill produces 1 megawatt of electricity. Windmills must be spaced several hundred feet apart so they don’t interfere with each other. To replace Oyster Creek’s 650 megawatts, New Jersey would have to cover 300 square miles of land or ocean with 45-story windmills. Even then, they’d only work when the wind blows, which is about one-third of the time. To replace just one of Indian Point’s reactors, you’d have to cover every square inch of Westchester County or Long Island Sound. Windmills would work blanketing Vermont’s Green Mountains, but then the state could likely kiss its fall-foliage tourism goodbye.

Solar collectors face the same problem. In New York and New England, you could rely on them only for summertime peak loads, since there are too many cloudy days the rest of the year. California had big plans to build 500 MW of solar capacity in the Mojave Desert — until California Senator Diane Feinstein announced two weeks ago she would seek legislation banning solar collectors from the Mojave, with nature groups having suddenly realized what a 25- to 30-square-mile facility would do for the desert environment.

This piece packs a concentrated dose of wisdom into a very small space. By all means read the whole thing.