Robock replies: I agree with William Morse that fossil fuels produce lots of pollution, particularly CO2. This is why renewable sources are needed, but nuclear power is not the answer.
The first five nuclear weapons states—the US, the Soviet Union, the UK, France, and China—tried to prevent nuclear proliferation by promoting civilian nuclear power through the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. But the reactors produce plutonium, which can be used to make weapons. Therefore, while telling other countries they could not have nuclear weapons, those five nations gave them the means to do so. 1 Israel developed nuclear weapons with assistance from France. The UK, the US, and Canada helped India build its first reactor. China, the Soviet Union, and European nations aided Pakistan. Pakistan and other countries helped Iran and North Korea.
Richard Wilson is wrong in saying that the nuclear waste disposal problem is just political. Opposition is based on the legitimate concerns of neighbors who do not want the waste nearby without assurance that they will be safe, and the proposed site of Yucca Mountain has geological problems that render it unsafe. 1
Wallace Manheimer is correct that energy is needed to provide a more comfortable life. But it can come from sources that do not emit greenhouse gases. And through regulation of the industry and a tax on carbon emissions, energy can be used much more efficiently than in the past. Coal with carbon sequestration is part of the solution; an abundant energy source is used but not allowed to produce global warming. Gerry Wolff illustrates an innovative way that solar power can be part of the solution.
We currently use the atmosphere as a sewer without paying the costs. Fossil-fuel and nuclear industries in the US are heavily subsidized by the federal government. Changes in government policy—for example, vehicle mileage standards—and allocation of resources to support efficiency; solar, wind, tidal, and wave power; cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel; and clean coal technology (with carbon sequestration) will allow us to maintain sources of energy for comfortable lives and still limit the environmental damages of global warming. Such developments will also stimulate new businesses and technologies that we can export and will reverse the US’s appalling lack of environmental leadership and global concern. That is how a superpower should behave.
