OPINION:
One thing Hollywood is very good at is scaring the bejesus out of Americans — even when it is merely spreading false fears.
A 1979 movie called “The China Syndrome” chronicled a nuclear power accident that could kill tens of thousands of Americans with radiation poisoning. The title came from a spooky fairy tale scenario where the nuclear material would melt the earth right through to its core and then down to China. The Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania less than two weeks after the film was released further panicked Americans about the safety of nuclear power plants.
Despite no deaths or injuries to plant workers or the surrounding community, the damage to the industry was done and was nearly fatal. As the chart shows, the nuclear industry failed to produce any new nuclear plants for nearly four decades.
That was yesterday. The time is right for a nuclear renaissance. The incoming administration, from President-elect Donald Trump on down, is pro-American energy dominance. Nuclear power has to be part of the equation.
We need to get back to building new plants to provide the electric power capacity for the next generation of artificial intelligence and other uses that will tax the grid beyond what it can provide. AI will use three to four times as much energy as the internet, so demand is going to spike, and we will be at risk of brownouts.
Jack Spencer — an energy policy expert at The Heritage Foundation — has just published a fabulous policy manifesto on how we could unleash (we love that word) a nuclear power renaissance in the United States.
Mr. Spencer conclusively shows that “obstructive regulations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and anti-nuclear scare tactics from the left have inhibited this industry for decades.” It’s as if Jane Fonda (remember her in the movie “The China Syndrome”?) ran our energy policy.
Today, we get less than 20% of our electric power from decades-old nuclear plants that are now being retired. If we don’t build new ones, we will lose ground on our energy production when we need much more capacity.
The federal government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on wind and solar subsidies, but these are still niche energy sources that are not scalable to meet the needs of our $25 trillion industrial economy. Al Gore and the climate change environmental groups should be all in on nuclear power as a clean energy source with minimal greenhouse gases.
If we double our nuclear power capacity over the next decade and allow more natural gas and oil drilling here at home, we could regain our energy-dominant position. OPEC would be a toothless tiger, and the Russian war machine could be defunded.
Small reactors serving towns of 50,000 to 100,000 people can minimize risks of major plant accidents that could put Americans in danger.
It’s all so logical. It puts America first.
We don’t need Jane Fonda dictating our energy policy any longer.
• Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a co-founder of Unleash Prosperity.
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