An argument for nuclear energy

I usually agree with J. Howard Crews. He writes good letters. However, he is off-target with his opposition to nuclear power plant generation [North County Times, 7/31/08]. Sen. John McCain is a proponent of nuclear power plants – and is right on target. Could politics be the real reason for McCain’s position? I don’t agree with much of John McCain’s stated philosophy either – but in this matter he is undeniably correct.

McCain’s scare tactics of a 140,000 loss in personnel in a single nuclear accident are just that – scare tactics! Where does he dream up these numbers? They are far in excess of the actual losses at Chernobyl (according to the UN and other international agencies) and are certainly far-fetched when compared to our own “3-Mile” incident and our losses down there.

I have no argument against solar power, wind-power, nor tidal or other hydroelectric systems – but collectively they provide minimal power and need a longer and more dependable backup. That’s where nuclear power generation comes in. It is clean and efficient – just ask the rest of the world and particularly Canada. The storage of spent fuel is a temporary problem until reprocessing takes over. Coal-fired plants are a no-no for obvious reasons. Nuclear is the way to go!

Robert F. Green