Written by: Samuel K. Sloan (Farpoint Media Executive News Director)

Just a note to say that in the most recent poll on the site I noticed that one of the most usable, safe and effective energy sources was not listed as a category, so I had to vote ‘Other’. The energy source I speak of is one that has been around now for over 50 years — nuclear energy.

Safe, reliable, clean. In its long history of use no one in the United States has ever died from it, gotten ill from it, the environment hasn’t suffered serious effects from it, not even after the 30 year ago Three Mile Island episode. And, let’s not bother to bring in Chernobyl please. That plant was poorly built in an economically depressed Soviet system, where government controlled cutbacks and shortcuts were the norm. There is no way it can be compared to, for example, U.S. or French made plants. Even current U.S. existing plants are 30 years old and safer than Chernobyl in its prime.

Why we haven’t continued building better and ever safer plants in America baffles me. We have lost an untold number of lives in coal mining accidents and coal is a known dirty pollutant, yet, except for ultra anti-coal extremists, no one is calling for a total ban or end to the mining industry. Wars have been and continue to fought over fossil fuel reserves with hundreds of thousands of young lives being laid waste for the sake of a tank of gas. Some wildlife have gone extinct and others have been placed in grave danger because of our lust for fossil fuels to heat our homes and run our companies. Hybrid electric/gas cars have proven to be a joke when it comes to actual fuel efficiency. The best of them get no more than around 43 miles/gal of gas-equivalent because of the heavy two-engine weight and multiple battery loads. Hell, some of today’s gas-only cars like Toyota, Cooper and Honda boast of coming close to that kind of mileage already. Also, why aren’t pro-Hybrid extremists concerned about all these depleted car batteries from the potential millions of Hybrid cars messing up the environment of our future? Hasn’t anyone even considered that?

Nuclear energy is safe, clean, efficient and cost effective. Storage containers for the waste dispensed by the byproducts have proven to be able to withstand more pressures and hold up under greater stress than they would ever be put through and are guaranteed to remain intact for centuries. The multi-story underground storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nevada is near completion, virtually water free (dispelling the fear of ground water contamination), and will be ready to store spent fuel and rods by the year 2017 with enough capacity to last for centuries of nuclear waste usage.

If we had concentrated, over the last 30 years, on building just 400 safe nuclear power plants in the U.S. alone, we would already have all the reusable energy this country could ever dream of utilizing for the next 100+ years and drastically cut down on our dependence on foreign and domestic fossil fuels to the point of only needing what was drilled domestically to be used for auto fuel only in high-mileage vehicles; thereby cutting back harmful emissions by nearly two-thirds in less than a decade. Without the over demanding need for fossil fuels we may quite possibly have been able to avert the many conflicts we have been and continue to be engaged in throughout the Middle East. OPEC would no longer be the dominating force it is in the world.

Let’s get real and be honest for a change - wind and solar, while quite probable for the distant future, and an area that should be actively researched and developed now for the long run, is, in the short-term, a pipe dream. Nuclear energy is the ticket for both short-term and long-range energy needs throughout the world.

It is time for saner minds to prevail on this issue — Oh, and for those who use the argument that Nuclear plants are just another target for terrorists, — get a grip — as Penn and Teller are fond of reminding us, in the world we live in everything is a possible target for terrorists, including your workplace, your home, your Capital building; yet no one is asking anyone to stop going to work, no longer build homes and shut down the 50 State Capitals. Why then are we not building better, safer, more efficient nuclear power plants? Extremist-talk on both sides of this issue is, again in Penn and Teller’s own words, “Bulls#%t!” And, quoting Star Trek’s Captain Kirk - “The truth is somewhere in between the two” extremist points of view.

I have no doubt there will be some in the future who will oppose the use of Dilithium Crystals to power our starships.