GOP senator: Build more nuclear plants

The United States should construct about 100 more domestic nuclear power plants over the next 20 years, according to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

In an interview with Tennessee’s The Daily Times, Alexander hailed nuclear power as a safe and clean energy source, despite the meltdown last month at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant that was triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.

“Since the 1950s, there’s never been a fatality in connection with the Navy reactors,” Alexander said Tuesday in a reference to about 100 naval vessels run on nuclear power. He also said there had been no fatalities traced to radiation at any of the nation’s 100 power plants on the ground.

Some members of Congress have seized on the meltdown in Japan to argue against further construction of nuclear plants in the United States.

But Alexander argued nuclear power could allow for a cleaner Tennessee.

“Tourists who come here and leave dollars ... don’t come to see smog, they come to see the Smokies,” said Alexander.