Copyright 2000 The Hartford Courant Company
THE
HARTFORD COURANT
May 13, 2000 Saturday, STATEWIDE
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A14
LENGTH: 337 words
HEADLINE:
OPEN YUCCA NUCLEAR STORAGE FACILITY
BYLINE: Dwight H.
Damon; Storrs
BODY:
Nancy A. Dartnall [Other
Opinion, April 19, "Yucca Mountain Proposal: Yucky!"] is wrong.
The Yucca mountain storage facility should be opened as soon as
possible.
Consider the following: No place on Earth is an absolutely
safe storage area. About $6 billion has been spent to examine, design and build
the Yucca mountain site. It is as safe as any site can be. A
storage site must be selected; there is no option not to have a storage site.
Solar energy is very expensive! True, the energy arrives on the surface
of Earth at no cost. However, it has one irremediable defect: It is not there
when you need it most!
Not only must one build the devices needed to
convert the electromagnetic radiation into useful energy, but one must also
construct extensive energy storage facilities. It is unlikely that solar energy
can ever be used directly except to augment home heating.
The use of
nuclear fission to generate electricity has one very attractive feature -- it
produces no greenhouse gases. It is very difficult to quantitatively compare the
risks of more greenhouse gases with the risks of small radioactive leaks from a
storage facility.
I think the greenhouse gases are more worrisome.
Opening the Yucca mountain site will encourage the growth of
nuclear power, which is a most desirable objective.
Increasing the
efficiency of energy use is certainly important. More work is needed, and
perhaps we will have to put a special tax on sport utility vehicles.
Nevertheless, the population is increasing, and even if we succeed in
significant reductions in per-capita energy use, we should expect the demand for
energy to increase.
Any major reduction in energy supply will only lead
to a drastic increase in the price of energy and thereby exacerbate the growing
class divisions in this country.
It is difficult to calculate the effect
of increased greenhouse gas concentrations, but it is not at all difficult to
foresee the disastrous political consequences of a major reduction in energy
supply.
LOAD-DATE: May 16, 2000
