Celebrating clean energy’s castoff

You would think that on Earth Day an energy source that is affordable, abundant, reliable and most importantly doesn’t create any emissions would be celebrated. For some reason, though, nuclear power remains a pariah in clean energy circles.

It is likely that one in five of you reading this online right now is doing it on a computer powered by nuclear energy. There are more than 100 reactors in 31 states supplying about 20 percent of our nation’s electricity. Unfortunately that number hasn’t changed much since go-go boots and bell bottoms were all the rage.

The sad fact for both the environment and the job market is that it has been more than 30 years since a new nuclear facility has been constructed in the United States.

On this Earth Day we need to commit to making nuclear power a larger part of our nation’s clean energy future.

I have supported nuclear power since I was elected in 1984. The industry has faced many challenges since then and even though no new reactors have been built in the United States during that time, safety has continued to improve at those facilities already in existence.

However, in the aftermath of the historic earthquake and subsequent nuclear emergency in Japan, like many Americans I wondered, “Could it happen here?”

So I went to Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Glen Rose, Texas, which lies just outside of my district, to get answers. I left the tour with renewed confidence not only in the safety and security measures at Comanche Peak but at plants around the country.

In fact, I told the plant manager before I left, “If there is ever an earthquake in this area, I want to be in the control room at Comanche Peak because that is the absolute safest place to be.”

The safety record at nuclear plants in the United States is impeccable and the systems that keep it that way are much more robust than those in Japan. The safety systems at reactors are redundant and automatic, meaning they don’t need to be activated by people or have backup generators to operate. Plus, each reactor in this nation is subject to aggressive oversight and thorough inspections by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

On top of all that, the industry also polices itself. Companies are constantly testing and reviewing safety protocols and, when necessary, those procedures are updated.

President Obama has voiced support for nuclear power, but at the same time eliminated a main ingredient for its success with a stroke of his pen when he stopped funding for the Yucca Mountain repository for spent nuclear fuel.

Cutting off funding for this project stops it cold and means that spent nuclear fuel remains scattered in repositories around the country making them more vulnerable to natural disasters or terrorist attacks. Yucca Mountain consolidates waste in a safer, remote location.

Like many energy related decisions made by this Administration, it appears the closing of Yucca Mountain was political and the worst part is that no alternatives were offered.

While I firmly believe the federal government should move forward with the Yucca Mountain project, we need to also continue to aggressively improve spent nuclear fuel recycling programs.

The United States was once a world leader in this technology, but just as with building new reactors, we have fallen behind. Reviving innovation in this sector would not only create jobs, it would eliminate waste, reducing the lifetime foot print of a spent nuclear fuel 95 percent from the size of a soda can to that of a Kennedy half dollar.

But clean, affordable, reliable, safe energy is only one byproduct of the nuclear energy industry. Building and expanding plants is also huge boost to the economy.

According to data from Oxford Economics, building 100 new reactors and an appropriate number of enrichment and reprocessing plants in the United States over the next 20 years would create more than 1 million new jobs.

All these are reasons that as I celebrate my 27th Earth Day in office I know now more than ever that our nation needs to renew its commitment to nuclear power.