Pro-nuke concert

Give the best of several worlds

It’s about time. Fact is, it’s been about time since, oh, 1960 or so. The Associated Press reports that the Biden administration is sending $6 billion to nuclear power plants around the nation in an effort to rescue the ones that are at risk. Not at risk as in “The China Syndrome,” but at risk as in money.

And the reason is because the administration sees a “need to continue nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of power that helps combat climate change.”

Glory be! After all these years of No Nuke Concerts and Jane Fonda movies and NIMBY protests from the left, we were about to give up on common sense when it comes to nuclear energy. But real damage to the environment through climate change must have convinced a lot of people to give up on fake damage to the environment, which was alleged by the anti-nuclear crowd.

The AP reports that the money (through some sort of civil nuclear credit program; this is a government operation) will go to “financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors.” And “It’s the largest federal investment in saving financially distressed nuclear reactors.”

This is a part of the trillion-dollar infrastructure deal that was passed late last year — another reason so many people, of all political persuasions, wanted this signed into law.

“U.S. nuclear power plants contribute more than half of our carbon-free electricity, and President Biden is committed to keeping these plants active to reach our clean energy goals,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.

“We’re using every tool available to get this country powered by clean energy by 2035, and that includes prioritizing our existing nuclear fleet to allow for continued emissions-free electricity generation and economic stability for the communities leading this important work.”

Very few new nuclear plants have opened in the last 40 years (although many have been updated to produce more energy). But a dozen have closed in the last 10 years. The reasons vary, but economics played a large role. These plants have had competition from cheap natural gas, attacks on the bottom line because of low electricity prices, and costs of major repairs. Dozens are facing shutdown for various reasons.

Nuclear power makes sense in more ways than one. First, it is safe. The Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania during the Carter administration hurt exactly nobody. In fact, Jimmy Carter visited the site during the crisis to show people that it wasn’t harmful. (And that executive officer of a nuclear submarine was an expert in nuclear power and safety.)

We’ll knock on wood before we say a Chernobyl can’t happen here, but the standards of American inspectors must be much higher than Soviet sleepwalkers.

Also, nuclear power is cheap. Like fossil fuels, it is always on. It doesn’t need the wind to blow or the sun to shine. Unlike fossil fuels, it doesn’t pollute.

The only downside to nuclear power plants is storage of the little waste they produce. But when the government gets around to reapproving Yucca Mountain, that disadvantage will disappear.

When it comes to 1. nuclear energy, 2. climate change, and 3. pollution that we all breathe, things are looking up. If both Democrats and Republicans can come to an agreement that nuclear energy is a big part of the solution to so many problems, the future seems bright.

And powered by nuclear plants.