On Monday, The New York Times ran an Op-Ed piece entitled “We’re Not Ready” by Bob Herbert. In the article, Herbert made the argument that the US was not ready for an expansion in nuclear energy based upon the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. He states:
There is no way to overstate how cautiously we need to proceed along this treacherous road. Building nuclear power plants is mind-bogglingly expensive, which is why you need taxpayer money to kick-start the process. But the overriding issues we need to be concerned about, especially in light of our horrendous experience with the oil gushing in the gulf for so long, are safety and security.
Safety is obviously a major concern with nuclear power. We have to just look back at the terrible accident at Chernobyl to see how a major nuclear accident can be devastating. Domestically, we have the Three Mile Island accident 30 years ago to use as a warning of how close we came to a major nuclear catastrophe of our own. This incident froze our development of nuclear power in the US while the nation was still suffering from the oil crisis of the 1970s.
However, I have to disagree with the general conclusion of Herbert’s article. When it comes to the nuclear energy debate, there is a fine line between being cautious and being afraid. In my opinion, Herbert sounds like he is afraid. He faults our faith in technology for the Gulf oil spill, and then ties that with the fear of a nuclear disaster on land. The problem with that argument is that it wasn’t the technology that caused the oil spill, but rather operational mismanagement.
Nuclear power plants are naturally designed to numerous emergency fail-safes because of the fear of an accident. These systems were in place even dating back to the Three Mile Island incident because people understood the risk associated with this form of energy. Plus, the fact that the “47 instances since 1979″ cited in the article were not major accidents highlight how the operators take performance and safety seriously. (He failed to note that oil refineries, drilling platforms, coal mines, and other energy producers also have a history of having to suspend production because of malfunctions or system failures.)
Some of Herbert’s fear can be eased with the introduction of Pebble Bed Reactors that are currently in development. This technology is naturally cooled by inert gas rather than water, so there is no contaminated water or concerns over corrosion caused by the water. Additionally, these reactors are designed to handle high temperatures, so if there is a failure in the cooling system, the concern over a potential meltdown is reduced compared to a conventional plant.
These upgrades in plant design are leading the nuclear energy production industry into a safer, more practical approach to power generation than 30 years ago. Combine those advances with the by-the-book operation of US nuclear power plants today, careless accidents similar to the Gulf oil spill do not occur domestically. Herbert is right that we should be cautious, but his fear should not stop of from moving into the next generation of domestic power production. And with President Obama wanting to place 1 Million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015, nuclear energy is currently the only source of power generation that could meet that demand.