The Oakland Tribune: New nuclear power is vital to the nation's future

Expansion of nuclear power will not only reduce carbon emissions but also have a very positive impact on the national economy. Building more nuclear plants will create many good-paying jobs. With the U.S. importing most of its energy supply, any spike in oil prices will have a devastating effect on the economy. The U.S. must move toward energy independence and a greater role for nuclear power is critical to reaching that goal.

From The Oakland Tribune:

IN AMERICA'S effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, decrease our dependence on imported oil and move toward energy independence, no new clean technology should be ignored. Solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, clean coal and eventually fusion sources of energy must be pursued.

All of the above are either in the beginning stages of development or are unlikely to produce major quantities of energy for many years. However, there is one available source of energy that shows considerable promise in producing large amounts of electric power in a relatively short time.

It produces negligible amounts of greenhouse gases, is safe and solves another environmental problem.

It is so-called fourth generation nuclear power, which features reactors that are 100 to 300 times more fuel efficient than today's reactors.

Most important from an environmental viewpoint, fourth generation nuclear power plants consume nuclear waste rather than produce it, as do today's nuclear power plants.

This type of reactor burns all of the uranium fuel (today's reactors leave 99 percent unburned) and also burns existing long-lived nuclear waste, leaving a small volume of waste that loses its radioactivity far faster than the waste produced by current nuclear power plants.

As a result, there would be no need to bury huge quantities of nuclear waste in places like Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Instead, that waste could be burned in the new power plants.

In addition to solving the nuclear waste problem, the new reactors can operate for several centuries using only uranium that has already been mined.

This counters the argument from some environmentalists that mining for nuclear fuel will use fossil fuels and add to the greenhouse effect.

The fourth generation reactors also operate at low pressure and high temperatures, unlike current reactors. The low pressure reduces the risk of accidents, and the high temperatures convert more of the reactor heat into electricity. Leftover heat can be used for desalinating water.

The technology used in fourth generation nuclear power has been developed. What needs to be done now is build working reactors.

President Barack Obama said he wants nuclear power to be included in America's effort to reduce greenhouse gases and rely less on imported oil.

To get things moving, the $25 billion collected over the past 40 years to deal with disposing nuclear waste could be used to build the first new reactors.

Fourth generation nuclear power is safer, far more efficient and environmentally cleaner than the nuclear power that has been used for the past half century.

Moreover, there is a good chance development of these new reactors would receive broad bipartisan support in Congress as well as from the private sector. There is no good reason to delay action toward this promising source of energy.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_16952183