The benefits of nuclear power haven't always been assumed. We remember the No Nukes concerts in the late 1970s. And that movie with Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon. In what can only be described as a brilliant public relations and marketing move, "The China Syndrome" was released 12 days before the Three Mile Island accident.
Say what you will about President Biden's next round of debt spending--and we say what we will, all the time--we've noticed some particulars in the various news stories: One being that "nuclear energy" is mentioned several times.
Some of us would prefer that state power systems and even private capital be used, when at all possible, to build new nuclear reactors in the United States. But at least this administration isn't coming into the argument as being against nuclear energy. And the assumption that the more leftish portion of his party has a lot to say in the administration, that's saying something.
Green energy continues to grow in this country, and who could be against that? Cleaner air benefits conservatives, liberals and those in between. But when the sun is down and the wind isn't blowing, the electricity grid needs some sort of power. Right now, that's mostly fossil fuels. But nuclear is cleaner, and would continue its growth on the pie charts, if we only knew what was good for us.
The 1970s were a time of bad taste, bad fashion, bad politics and bad times in general. And the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania--which harmed nobody, to the best of our knowledge--was quickly contained. (Even President Carter, who knew a lot about nuclear energy from his time in the Navy, visited the Three Mile Island plant soon after the accident to inspect the plant. And to show its dangers had been contained.)
The 1970s also gave Americans a fear of a perfectly clean, stable, available and bountiful energy.
Even if there is little else on which to agree--whether government or the private sector would be best at supplying the capital; whether any program restricted to the United States can affect global climate change--at least it appears we're all beginning to see the benefits of going nuclear.
You know? We'll take it.