The Samuel Taylor Coleridge Foundation, a very fine blog indeed, has had continuing coverage of the politics of global warming, and today has an extended treatment that is well worth a look. In an earlier post, STCF declares support for nuclear energy as a relatively clean energy solution. I have to say that until recently I was very skeptical that would be the case, especially given the political and legal wrangling over the Yucca Mountain waste deposit site.
What I've read recently about research in China into a much cleaner version gives me some hope. An article in Wired gives a rundown. It is less clear whether U.S. energy producers are willing to take this leap. What's that you say, neoclassical economists? A firm would make the switch as long as the profit margins were higher and the startup costs were sufficiently low? Well, this technology is cheap, has been around for decades, is familiar to many in the U.S. nuclear industry and in fact was invented in this country, but they have chosen not to develop it to this point. Domestic energy producers may need a kickstart, but I don't see one coming from this oil-drunk administraion.
Boff,
The problem with nuclear energy today is the waste, primarily. We know we can find a way to deal with that...shoot it into the asteroid belt in a rocket, if nothing else will suffice. It's an engineering problem that we never paid enough attention to, to really resolve before (it was easier to pretend it didn't exist).
But instead we prefer coal? That's why you can't eat more than one serving of salmon or bass a week. Aerosol mercury spread across the globe: heavy metal poisoning for free, for everyone.
My point is, the "safer" solution we endure is actually, demonstrably worse than the "dangerous" solution we reject.
Posted by: Patrick | November 30, 2004 at 10:41 PM