Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said the United States should issue a moratorium on any new nuclear power projects in light of the current crises facing Japan.
Ive been a big supporter of nuclear power because its domestic, its ours and its clean, Lieberman said in an interview with Face the Nation.
Weve had a good safety record with nuclear power plants here in the United States ... I dont want to stop the building of nuclear power plants, but I think weve got to kind of quietly, quickly put the brakes on until we can absorb what has happened in Japan.
Lieberman noted that only a portion of American nuclear power plants are built according to designs that would allow them to withstand major disasters.
Its time I think for states to look at their building codes and see whether they want to take preventive action, he said. A lot of the old buildings have not been retrofitted.
Marvin Fertel, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, disagreed during an appearance on Meet the Press.
All of our power plants are designed to sustain maximum earthquake [damage], he said.
We seem to be pretty good at identifying energy sources we don't want (oil, natural gas, nuclear) but not so good at figuring out how to get sufficient energy from the sources we do want.
Nobody ever lost money underestimating the average intelligence of the American public.
P.T. Barnum
The US has loads of relatively clean and safe natural gas and people have been proposing we use it decades. There are 100 nuclear power plants in the US and 15,000 natural gas.
"I dont want to stop the building of nuclear power plants, but I think weve got to kind of quietly, quickly put the brakes on until we can absorb what has happened in Japan.
Sounds fairly reasonable even for Lieberman. Sounds like a politician talking. Also, it doesn't mean he's right or Fertel is wrong but it should be up for debate at the very least. Not building them near unstable areas is a good start.
"I dont want to stop the building of nuclear power plants, but I think weve got to kind of quietly, quickly put the brakes on until we can absorb what has happened in Japan.
Sounds fairly reasonable even for Lieberman. Sounds like a politician talking. Also, it doesn't mean he's right or Fertel is wrong but it should be up for debate at the very least. Not building them near unstable areas is a good start.
What the fuck have we been doing for the past 30 years we have not been building plants? Put on the brakes? The brakes were put on decades ago. We've long been at a complete stop.
I wonder if there are any studies on how much power liberals use compared to conservatives.. I bet libs use more. Takes a lot of power to charge up that Macbook, iPod, iPhone, and Volt.
Well I bet you conservatives use a lot of power too. An open refrigerator door wastes a lot of energy.
Well I bet you conservatives use a lot of power too. An open refrigerator door wastes a lot of energy.
Yes....it is much more preferable to create and breathe coal power plant poisons every day.Life is so fucking cruel. Nuclear disasters keep fucking up nuclear energy. It's just not fair for assholes and pricks willing to create deadly poisons that kill for thousands of years. It's such a shame that ordinary stupid folk now have even more irrational and ridiculous reasons to oppose you.
Yea lets keep using natural gas that way no one can afford to heat their home.
So many power companies have jumped on the NG bandwagon it has caused prices to rise much faster than normal.
Nuclear power is much better over all as NG is better for heat while nuclear could fill in the electrical area.
Solution... don't build reactors near the ocean or in earthquake prone areas.
BTW the government will probably spend a million dollars on some study and come to the same conclusion.
If you think nuclear energy is cheap think again. The reason we stopped building more plants is because the shit is expensive as hell. Since the Soviet Union collapsed we've had access to relatively cheap nuclear fuel, but it still ain't a bargain as energy sources go. We didn't need to pay more, we didn't need more bombs, so we didn't build more plants. You didn't really think a bunch of politicians would let a little thing like public perception get in the way of making a buck did you?
Life is so fucking cruel. Nuclear disasters keep fucking up nuclear energy. It's just not fair for assholes and pricks willing to create deadly poisons that kill for thousands of years. It's such a shame that ordinary stupid folk now have even more irrational and ridiculous reasons to oppose you.