 "Photo: Willus Branham")
Utah is dependent on a good energy plan. Opposing nuclear energy and waste disposal in Utah is a bit short of logical. Utah is going to be a desert for the next few million years; it is probably the best place to store waste until technology advances to reduce or eliminate the problem.
Many support alternative energy for environmental reasons and I agree, but I would never chain myself to a tree or fraudulently buy millions of dollars worth of land at a Utah auction.
More important than environmentalism, alternative energy has positive economic and security benefits.
The Nuclear Energy Institute reports on their Web site: “nuclear energy is a secure energy source that the nation can depend on. Nuclear energy is not subject to unreliable weather or climate conditions, unpredictable cost fluctuations, or dependence on foreign suppliers.”
Last summer, fuel prices were around $4 a gallon, and gas prices seem to be creeping back that direction. As a student in an even worse economy then it was then, what would that mean for you?
Nuclear energy is the most promising solution to lower the demand for oil. Wind and solar are great as well, but unless you opt to put solar panels on your roof, those two would have to take up hundreds of thousands of acres to put a dent into energy consumption. Even if we did that, it would come out of our pockets. Tuition might increase if the U installed a significant number of wind turbines or solar panels. Your state taxes would rise if the state took on the project. Not to mention the danger it poses to a mustang stampede running free through a windmill farm and slamming head first into the support pole.
Tuition and tax rates would rise because of the cost of purchasing and installing panels or mills in the state or up at the U. Utah is a very fiscally responsible state, I doubt the state government would debt finance their way to alternative energy. Those thousands of acres or U installation of alternative energy has to get the money from somewhere. Wind and solar are a private investment by an individual, not a massive government undertaking that would fill the sands of Moab with solar panels. Nuclear energy is a government investment to reorganize energy infrastructure.
With recent education cuts, the U cannot afford increased energy prices. Buildings such as OSH, Milton Bennion Hall and the buildings lining Presidents' Circle are just shy of being an acceptable armory. They have thick brick walls, minimal windows and are hooked up to a heating and cooling system that would make the Energizer Bunny throw down his mallets in a wave of defeat.
For many of you, I assume, it isn’t nuclear energy that has you scared, it’s the waste it produces. That is the biggest obstacle to nuclear energy. Because launching nuclear waste via a rocket aimed at the sun as a method of disposal is not viable, we are lucky to have EnergySolutions in Utah.
In disposal of nuclear waste, safety is paramount. EnergySolutions realizes the importance of this.
“Safety is our first priority," said Mark Walker, media relations director of EnergySolutions. "Safety for our employees, the environment and the citizens of Utah.”
Walker encourages the public to contact EnergySolutions and tour the facility to see the safety of their operations. EnergySolutions has a waste-disposal unit in Tooele County which contributes to growing the nuclear industry, but to stop there would be disingenuous.
Utah does not have any nuclear power plants. According to research conducted by The Utah Foundation, a public policy research group, Utah does not import any nuclear energy. The report goes on to say: “Renewable and nuclear energies are currently the only known sources of energy that are not subject to the same diminishing supplies as fossil fuels. While in the short run they will be more expensive and less efficient to adopt, they remain a consistently viable source of energy into the distant future.”
It is remarkable to learn from the report that Utah has historically been the third highest producer of uranium in the country. Why not harness that resource?
Complaining about big oil companies is getting pretty cliché. If you want to do something besides buying local and stocking up on $5 energy-saving lightbulbs, support nuclear energy. Fussing around with windmills and solar panels while leaving out nuclear energy hinders real energy progress.
14 comments
pay for their mistakes in not knowing the "real price" of uranium mining.
1. Nobody bought any land at a lease auction for mineral rights.
2. Of course the Nuclear Energy Institute claims wind, waves, and the sun are "undependable." While that argument is ludicrous for wind and waves in many locations and generally ludicrous for the (natural fusion reactor) sun, low reliability is also a concern for fission nuclear electrical generating stations shut down for massive overhauls, refueling, etc. This is a non-argument.
3. All of these energy questions are long term considerations -- today's students having to pay $4.00 a gallon for gasoline in the short term is irrelevant to this discussion.
4. While it's true that, in the short to mid-term, nuclear power is one of the most available and greenest solutions to our oil dependence, what happened to energy conservation? I see none of it in this long argument. It could do more than the few nuclear plants we might get online in the next 15 to 20 years if we started right now. And it just might save the planet to boot.
5. I'm not going to mention the mustang stampede. I smoked some of that stuff when I was in college too.
6. The next paragraph is illogically and generally irrelevant. Taxes and tuition will rise even if the sun comes up tomorrow.
7. Energy solutions is ok, but it's not a solution to high-level waste disposal. We NEED the Yucca Mountain facility that has been promised by law for decades. This is my first big disagreement with President Obama.
8. The fact that Utah has no nuclear generating plants is also irrelevant. We don't have the water resources to support a single plant. We're a net exporter of electricity (from our dirty coal plants); nobody here should be proud of that; it should spur us to support ALL green energy initiatives.I am a nuclear engineer. I was born in Utah, educated in Utah, and I live here.