As I pulled away from the nuclear power reactor near Portsmouth, Ohio, I paused to look back as it silently produced a constant supply of nuclear-generated electrical power into the grid. There had been a replay of the usual agenda– safety incidents that were labeled “nuclear accidents” only because they happened at a nuclear plant. There was the diversion of the man who tripped on his untied shoelace, fell against a table and broke a tooth— another “nuclear” accident. The new reactors being built at Plant Vogtle in Georgia have new features to ensure there will be no “nuclear excursion.” But the claim of a “nuclear incident” from an untied shoelace may continue to serve as an irritant.
It occurs to me that the collective groups that object to nuclear power reactors don’t want any electrical power plants. Oil-fueled plants, they say, perpetuate our dependence on foreign oil. The recent higher prices for crude oil allowed the pumping of domestic crude oil to become economically competitive. But environmental agencies oppose that move out of fear of oil spills, although there has not been a significant spill at any of our pumping stations.
Coal-fired plants are the second largest source of electrical power in the national grid. But government regulations are on a path of replacing them all with… what? Perhaps more to the point is “why”?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decreed that coal— any kind of coal— cannot be considered as a power plant fuel. It recalls the old saying: “My mind is made up; don’t confuse me with the facts.”
Groups opposed to nuclear power plants frequently point to “alternative” sources of energy, with an implication that those in the power industry know lots of alternatives to the common oil, coal and nuclear plants but that they are hiding them from the public.
Let’s take a look at a couple. Solar power as a practical alternative source gets a lot of attention. We see and hear of various businesses that have, with much fanfare, plastered the top of their buildings to provide much of their energy requirements— one being the Michelin plant in South Carolina. What is not said is that they have a high-speed switching service to move to industrial electrical power provided by the well-regulated power grid, so a drop or surge in solar energy can be smoothed out at high speed with the use of commercial power. The second point is that most of the solar energy goes to operating bulk machinery used in making vehicle tires— power which can fluctuate without interfering with the tire-making process.
A second solar power use is heating water for individual homes. Indeed, solar energy is a practical source of energy for operating utilities at private homes and selective businesses. But there is no need to replay the analysis that relying on solar power to supply the national power grid would require paving much of the land surface in the country with solar panels, and would cost much of the national budget. There is no magic genie who can extract more energy from solar panels than falls on them from the sun.
As for wind power, I frequently have driven over the coastal ridge between San Jose and the Pleasanton-Livermore area of California – with the ridge covered with a forest of modern, huge, three-bladed propellers turning idly in the wind. It’s a fairly strong wind, and the builders chose their site wisely. But these windmills aren’t connected to anything. Specifically, they aren’t connected to the state’s power grid and they never will be in spite of severe pressure from utility companies to use that wind power Why? The power output from these windmills is far too variable for the utilities to absorb it into their grid. The cost of trying to accommodate such a variable and highly unreliable power source is far too great to be acceptable.
This brings me back to where I started. The only practical sources of clean, safe, non-polluting energy as a potential replacement for the present fossil-fuel plants are nuclear power reactors. The new Vogtle nuclear units are a welcomed step in advancing Georgia’s nuclear material as energy sources. And for those who still entertain the notion that there is a human source for some ephemeral rise in the earth’s intrinsic temperature, they should note that nuclear plants do not involve the burning of any fossil fuel.
When nuclear power plants are freed from harassment by obstructionists, the path to modern plants is uneventful. Unless (as I glanced back at the Ohio plant drifting out of my sight) somebody else trips over a mop handle.
The author is Raymond Hunter of Royston, who has a PhD. in nuclear physics and enjoyed a career at Los Alamos Laboratory working with the famed Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.
