Thanks for including the shocking story about the threatened imminent collapse of America’s nuclear power industry in the July 11 Environment section (“Experts warn of US nuclear industry collapse”).
As pointed out, these nuclear power plants provide over 50 percent of all the nonpolluting energy in our entire country, even though they only provide 20 percent of the total power generated. In order to replace this clean power with clean wind and solar, we would need to build a little over 2½ times as many wind and solar installations nationwide as we have over the years to date. Given the NIMBY kickback we have seen here in our own state, building out wind farms alone would be a formidable task.
Most disturbing of all was the assertion that economic and political challenges are to blame for not solving this problem. That is, we supposedly can’t afford to spend money to save the planet? We spent $2 trillion on the Iraq war, and everyone knows what a fiasco that was. We can’t change regulations because many members of Congress can’t agree that climate change even merits their attention? That is hard to believe.
In the past, America was able to build an atomic bomb, going from theoretical concept to finished product in under three years. This was done without the help of computers, much of the manufacturing equipment had to be invented and expense was not a problem.
The existential threat posed by the Axis powers is dwarfed by the threat posed by climate change, but suddenly we can’t fund new reactors and we can’t seem to change regulations. It is ironic and tragic that we find ourselves unable to act.
Tom Baker
Amherst