MarketWatch's Marshall Loeb shares his view on why, a generation later, it's worth taking another look at nuclear energy.
As more and more heat waves, hurricanes and other natural catastrophes batter the world, the mood among people just about everywhere is turning increasingly green.
The feeling is strong that global warming is not a phony fear but a real, rapidly growing and dangerous force. Moreover, the only way to stop it -- or merely slow it -- is to reduce the carbon dioxide emisions produced by the burning of fossil fuels that power industrial plants as well as planes, trains and automobiles.
And the surest way to accomplish that is to depend more on nuclear power instead of oil, gas and coal. Consequently, the nuclear industry is beginning to show signs of revival if not renaissance.
It's about time.
For a quarter century, nukes in the United States have been dormant. Though 103 reactors now produce 20 percent of the nation's electricity, no new nuclear plant has won Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to begin operating since 1978. This is a result of widespread fears among the public after the near meltdown at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, in 1979 and the meltdown at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986.
But many other nations have surmounted those apprehensions. Nukes generate fully 78 percent of France's power and about 33 percent of Japan's.
Finally, the U.S. may be beginning to catch up. Not only have the safety records abroad been impressive, but the stiff rise in oil and natural gas prices has been daunting, and the political, military and terrorist threats posed by some foreign producers (Iran, Venezuela, etc.) have been fearsome . . . .
As more and more heat waves, hurricanes and other natural catastrophes batter the world, the mood among people just about everywhere is turning increasingly green.
The feeling is strong that global warming is not a phony fear but a real, rapidly growing and dangerous force. Moreover, the only way to stop it -- or merely slow it -- is to reduce the carbon dioxide emisions produced by the burning of fossil fuels that power industrial plants as well as planes, trains and automobiles.
And the surest way to accomplish that is to depend more on nuclear power instead of oil, gas and coal. Consequently, the nuclear industry is beginning to show signs of revival if not renaissance.
It's about time.
For a quarter century, nukes in the United States have been dormant. Though 103 reactors now produce 20 percent of the nation's electricity, no new nuclear plant has won Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to begin operating since 1978. This is a result of widespread fears among the public after the near meltdown at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, in 1979 and the meltdown at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986.
But many other nations have surmounted those apprehensions. Nukes generate fully 78 percent of France's power and about 33 percent of Japan's.
Finally, the U.S. may be beginning to catch up. Not only have the safety records abroad been impressive, but the stiff rise in oil and natural gas prices has been daunting, and the political, military and terrorist threats posed by some foreign producers (Iran, Venezuela, etc.) have been fearsome . . . .
