In town recently, here’s what Sen. John McCain said about nuclear energy…
“We have in use today a zero emission energy that could provide electricity for millions more homes and businesses than it currently does. Yet it has been over twenty-five years since a nuclear power plant has been constructed. The barriers to nuclear energy are political not technological. We’ve let the fears of thirty years ago, and an endless political squabble over the storage of nuclear spent fuel make it virtually impossible to build a single new plant that produces a form of energy that is safe and non-polluting.
“If France can produce 80% of its electricity with nuclear power, why can’t we? Is France a more secure, advanced and innovative country than we are? Are France’s scientists and entrepreneurs more capable than we are? I need no answer to that rhetorical question. I know my country well enough to know otherwise.
“Let’s provide for safe storage of spent nuclear fuel, and give host states or localities a proprietary interest so when advanced recycling technologies turn used fuel into a valuable commodity, the public will share in its economic benefits.”
I wonder what the popular opinion in Nevada would be if part of the “economic benefits” our state would receive for accepting nuke waste at Yucca Mountain included, oh, say, $10 billion in highway construction money and another bil or so for education and health care programs? Let’s see a poll on THAT.
Posted on April 29th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
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