Global Warming Issues

These are heady times for nuclear power advocates. The industry is on an unprecedented uptick as the world tries to lessen its reliance on globe-warming fossil fuels. In the United States, applications for new reactors and extended licenses are soaring. In Florida, which has five nuclear reactors, preliminary approval has been granted for four more.

A rising chorus of support - from financial markets, Congress, legislatures and the campaign trail - has dimmed long-standing memories of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, the two most serious accidents to befall the nuclear power industry.

But before anyone is tempted to put a smiley-face sticker on the next nuclear plant, consider some recent news stories:

Last week, Florida Power and Light announced the shutdown of a nuclear reactor in South Florida after a leak developed from a “structural weld crack.” It is not a safety threat, company officials said, but the duration of the shutdown is indefinite.

DOUBTS CLOUD FUTURE

Also last week, a report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the rod-control system malfunctioned at a nuclear power station near Raleigh, N.C. (Control rods regulate the rate of fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors.)

Doubts cloud the future of the unfinished national nuclear-waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

Local opposition is stiff, and costs are rising. From the beginning of the program in 1983 through the anticipated closure and decommissioning in 2133, an estimated $79 billion will be spent on Yucca Mountain, the Department of Energy reported this month.

That’s a 38 percent increase over 2000 estimates, taking into account an expected rise in nuclear waste that would be stored there as the nation deploys more reactors.

Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, touts France’s nuclear power program as an exemplar, but several problems were reported there last month.

At a nuclear plant in Tricastin, for example, untreated uranium seeped into the ground and wound up in rivers. Later, radioactive particles escaped from a pipe, slightly contaminating utility workers.

The environment minister said French nuclear facilities experienced more than 80 “small irregularities” last year.

These are not deadly accidents. They don’t negate the fact that, by many measures, nuclear power plants are far safer than coal-fired plants, which expose millions of people to life-shortening air pollution.

But the episodes show nuclear power problems can and do occur - frequently.

SECURITY AND MAINTENANCE CHALLENGES

Despite the general safety record, nuclear power presents tough security and maintenance challenges. That reality differs from the safe-and-cheap happy talk dispensed by lobbyists - who in the past decade have pumped nearly a third of a billion dollars into U.S. campaign coffers and public relations.

The United States is at a difficult energy crossroads. It can’t rely indefinitely on oil and dirty coal as global temperatures and sea levels rise. Clean alternatives, such as solar and wind power, are promising but not yet ready to shoulder the lion’s share of the nation’s fuel needs.

Consequently, nuclear energy has taken on an air of inevitability as the country transitions out of fossil fuels. Nuclear energy is low in carbon emissions, and new reactor designs have the potential to greatly cut the danger of radioactive accidents or misuse.

But those design prototypes are not yet approved. No solution is in place for long-term waste storage. Regulatory oversight is complex and inadequate. Enormous start-up subsidies are required.

If the United States heads down the nuclear road, it should do so with eyes wide open to the costs and risks.

Energy conservation, by contrast, is a safe, inexpensive way to buy time for improvements in solar and wind power. Americans don’t need a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort to tell them that less is more.

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