H Veeder <hveeder...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > << > We cannot be paralyzed into inaction by fear>> > > > Should we be pushed into action by greed masquerading as the need for > economic growth? > People need electricity. In the 1970s it was reasonable to think that nuclear power was a clean, safe alternative to coal. There is still some truth to that. I have never liked nuclear power but it is safer than coal. Safer for the miners, for the people living near the generators, and now that we understand global warming, safer for everyone. I think it would be a dreadful mistake to turn off all nuclear power reactors and replace them with coal. This would be a greater threat than the possibility there will be more Fukushima-like hydrogen explosions. We need to replace fission reactors, but we need to do it in an orderly fashion that does not cause more harm that it prevents. It is easy to dismiss a technology because it is not perfect or because it turns out to have more risk than we thought. It is much harder to keep civilization going by supplying electricity. In hindsight nuclear fission was not ready to be scaled up. This was the wrong design. Of course we need cold fusion more than anything. It will make problems such as this vanish. It will eliminate the hard choices. - Jed
