Should Nuclear Advocates Continue Their Unrequited Support for Other Fossil Alternatives?

There is a discussion worth participation on NEI Nuclear Notes titled Chronicles in Advocacy: Tell It to the Wind. Mark Flanagan found a post that qualifies as a “smoking gun” titled Think again before going nuclear that was published on October 29 by High Country News. Russ Doty wrote the opinion piece that included such unoriginal misinformation as

“A 2006 Union of Concerned Scientists’ study found that U.S. nuclear reactors have experienced 51 shutdowns, each lasting more than a year. Poor management and ineffective regulatory oversight caused these closures, which cost ratepayers and stockholders nearly $82 billion in lost revenue.

Then there is always the risk of a meltdown if we resume construction of nuclear power plants.”

What caught Mark’s attention about the editorial was the author information at the end –

Russ Doty is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He is the chief operating officer of New World WindPower in Billings, Montana.

Mark’s view is that a wind advocate should not be attacking nuclear power; that perspective reflects the position of the Nuclear Energy Institute, which includes many members that have large investments in wind power technology and wind powered electricity production facilities. Quoting Mark

“Wind power looks to be getting a big boost in the next presidential administration – whoever wins – so there’s a lot for the industry to tout – and a lot of country for nuclear and wind (and solar and hydro and etc) to share. We’re all in it for the common good – let’s leave it at that.

In the comments section, there are a couple of contributors that share my belief that wind is unreliable, expensive, ancient technology that does not serve customers very well. There is another view that falls more into the “we’re all in this effort together” mode.

IMHO – nuclear power competes with other energy sources for market share and cannot expect to find supporters with interests in selling those other solutions into the same marketplace. If we are going to find allies, we will have to look at the much larger field of people who BUY energy instead of trying to find friends among people who SELL energy.

What do you think – feel free to post here or post there, but express your view.

(Apologetic note: I was going to post my comment contribution here, but I lost it in the ether until it is approved. Too much flipping, tabbing and command c/command v going on this morning.)