It's a Day to Support Nuclear Energy Developments
Today, February 25, 2010, professional anti-nuclear organizations are encouraging people to call their congressmen and senators to express themselves about the President’s decision to increase the ceiling for nuclear project loan guarantees from $18.5 to $54 billion as part of his FY2011 budget submission.
Please take a minute or two out of your day to call your representative and express your support for the President’s forward leaning decision to enable new nuclear plant construction in the United States. As he said during his State of the Union Address:
But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.
You can find the necessary contact information for your representative at http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml and for your senator at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Thanks for spreading the word on what the anti-nukes are up to.
I just called my Congressman and both Senators to express my support.
Thanks for the alert, Rod.
Just sent a letter to both congressmen giving support. I actually used the form on the website for democracy now, and changed the contents of their ‘boilerplate’ letter. 🙂
Use their letter-writing system to correct their message:
Dear Senator,
President Obama’s proposal to triple the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction–to $54 Billion–is absolutely fantastic! The nuclear industry has been suppressed for long enough that new loans are a welcome way to reinvigorate construction of new reactors to meet today’s needs, and to help fund research and development of new, more efficient, cleaner nuclear technologies.
It’s good to finally hear noise about declaring nuclear power “renewable” – given that its fuel will not run out for the next thousand years or so. Also, new reactors are more or less the only viable solution to the climate crisis – nuclear is the only power generation technology that can meet national demand without producing significant CO2.
Given the stifling regulatory environment around the nuclear industry of the last 30 years, this offer by the US government to reignite the fires of the nuclear industry – fires that will easily pay the government back with interest – is exactly what the taxpayers need: guaranteed loans for a guaranteed investment.
Every one of the proposed new reactors in the U.S. has experienced costly delays due to regulatory issues.
Nuclear power is safe and clean, compared to our other options. The explosion of the KleenEnergy natural gas plant as compared to the recent tritium leak at Vermont Yankee exist in elegantly stark contrast: an explosion of volatile chemicals, killing five on one hand, and the leak of less tritium than it would take to equal a winter day’s radiation levels on the other.
Diverting scarce resources that could and should be used for genuinely safe and clean renewable energy like nuclear makes perfect sense.
Please do everything in your power to obtain an increase in loan guarantee authority. Please inform me of the steps you plan to take to do so.
Sent this note to Senator Shaheen, Congressman Hodes (and slightly different version to President Obama and Secretary Chu)
Dear Congressman Hodes,
I would like to express to you my strong support for President Obama’s decision to proceed with loan guarantees for the construction of new Nuclear power plants in the United States.
I am certainly what most people would call a ‘liberal’. I have voted Democratic in every election for nearly 40 years.
I also have a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry and I strongly believe that nuclear power will be the key technology of the 21st century. Any country that does not develop a strong capability in nuclear power will be at a great disadvantage. China and India have certainly seen that this is true and are embarking on expansion programs of breathtaking scope (China currently has 21 reactors under construction, and in 10 years that number may be closer to 100).
Nuclear Energy is also the key to combating the effects of climate change. After looking at the ‘numbers’, I’m afraid that proponents of wind and solar are simply wrong in their belief that these technologies will be adequate.
I believe in the importance of nuclear energy to the extent that I have encouraged my oldest son to pursue a career as a nuclear engineer (he is in his second year at UMass Lowell). I expect him to have a satisfying career performing a job that is truly important and worthwhile.
I urge you to support the President in the loan guarantee program, which will cost the American taxpayer nothing and will pay dividends for centuries to come.
Best Regards,
Stephen J. Kennedy, Ph.D.
On Treehugger today: “Friends of the Earth Launches Spooky Anti-Nuclear Ad Campaign”
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/spooky-anti-nuclear-campaign.php
This was my comment there:
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These ads obviously have “paid for by the fossil fuel industry” written all over them.
Nuclear is one of the safest, greenest energy sources that we have. Listen to environmental greats like James Lovelock, Stewart Brand and Jim Hansen and you will agree. Read Stewart Brand’s “Whole Earth Discipline” for an excellent look at the issues surrounding nuclear power.
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