Homocon

After all, Finland has four nuclear power plants which supply 27% of the country's power, with a fifth plant currently being built. They're among the world's most efficient nuclear power plants (with an average capacity of 94%), and "are remarkable in the extent to which they have been updated since they were built."

Because of the cold climate in Finland, their economy consumes a lot of energy. In the absence of indigenous oil, coal and natural gas resources, a hydropower industry that was abandoned in the 60's for its lack of efficiency, and a dearth of real wind power, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Sinikka Mönkäre, who is a Social Democrat, argued for the building of the fifth nuclear power plant -- another consideration was that an additional nuclear plant would assist Finland in meeting its stringent climate commitments under the Kyoto protocol (and oh, that must send environmentalists into a tizzy).

And as of June, 2005, there were a total of 204 nuclear power plants in Europe, with six more under construction (France alone has 59 nuclear power plants, with 78% of their energy generated from nuclear, while also winning a recent bid to host a 10 billion-euro experimental nuclear fusion reactor project, partnering with The European Union, the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea and China -- nuclear fusion is seen as a cleaner approach to power production than nuclear fission and fossil fuels.). Even after renouncing nuclear power in 2000, Germany still has 17 nuclear power plants generating over 1/3 of their energy, while Belgium, France, Russia and the UK chemically reprocess their spent nuclear fuel rods for further use ( with Japan building its own nuclear reprocessing plant). The Carter administration ceased reprocessing efforts here in the States in the 70's in some vain hope that the rest of the world would follow suit and nuclear proliferation would magically cease -- which didn't happen. Attempts, since then, to restart our nuclear reprocessing capabilities have met with fierce resistance from environmental organizations, who have also fiercely resisted the building of additional oil refineries and the drilling for oil in Alaska -- moves which would have lessened the current negative economic impact of Hurricane Katrina.

We now have lines at gas stations, shortage fears and prices skyrocketing, with at least one airline (or even more) on the brink of collapse. Even the President has publicly urged people not to buy gas unless they absolutely have to, while also promising to release oil from the strategic reserves, which won't have much impact in the short term as there aren't enough functioning refineries to process the crude oil into usable fuel (have I mentioned environmentalists).

Hurricane Katrina has shown all but those in denial that we as Americans need to put our priorities in order. If we'd gone ahead and just drilled for oil in Alaska, as well as continued to construct (as well as modify) nuclear power plants, we wouldn't be in the energy mess we're in now. We have to be serious about our energy options, and recognize the limitations of both solar (have to have enough consistent sunshine) and wind power (the geography has to be perfect for continuous winds) for a chugging economy that's only on the increase. Besides, wind farms kill birds and spoil the lovely Cape Cod views, so perhaps wind turbines are out of fashion with the latest Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. style liberal.

So how about some nice, clean nuclear energy? If it's good enough for France, Finland, Belgium, the UK, Sweden, Russia, Japan, China and more, then why are we still stuck in our 1979 post-"Three Mile Island" paranoia? It's been 25 years since, and stunning advances have been made in both safety and efficiency in the nuclear power fields. Yes, Chernobyl was a disaster, but so was the entire Soviet economy at the time, which was more a contributor to the failures of its power plant than any inherent danger in nuclear power in and of its own.

And for heaven's sake, let's get back to reprocessing our own spent fuel rods instead of just burying them under a mountain!