Does America Have a Future in Nuclear?

Will nuclear power finally become a major source of electricity for America?  Barack Obama seems to think so, in his recent State of the Union Address he tripled federal funding for nuclear power, increasing the amount from $18 billion to $54 billion.  Since the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, nuclear power has fallen out of favor with many Americans, although countries such as France use nuclear power for more than 90% of their electricity generation.  So why now?  Some think that the President is trying to get Republicans on board with the cap and trade bill.  However, I don’t believe that this is the case.  I believe that this administration has finally seen that America needs nuclear power to overcome the imminent shortage of other fuels such as coal, natural gas, and petroleum.  While there are other methods of producing energy without fossil fuels, nuclear power is the one used the most, developed the most, and produces the most energy.  Wind and solar plants depend on the weather, but nuclear plants can be operated all of the time.  Nuclear plants have two caveats though; their waste, and chance of meltdown.  While full meltdowns are rare, partial meltdowns have happened before, and have killed people.  There is also the question of where to put the waste.  Nuclear waste has a very long half-life and thus is hard to store in large amounts.  However, the President has put a team on the job of figuring out what to do with the nuclear waste, produced from old plants, and the new ones being built.  However, I think that the benefits outweigh the problems, and America should press forward on this issue.

Prinz