A NUCLEAR ENERGY UPDATE

United States Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and President Obama announced this week funding for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Georgia.  This facility will be the first nuclear power plant in the United States to be built in thirty years!

Environmental activists do not often support nuclear energy, but this plan may be a step in the right direction—a direction away from fossil fuels.  Remember that nuclear energy results in no carbon emissions!  This new power plant will cut carbon pollution by 16 million tons each year when compared to a coal-fired power plant.

However, the one major problem still to be solved with this type of power is how to get rid of nuclear waste.   President Obama says we must “accelerate our efforts to find ways of storing this waste safely and disposing of it.”  Secretary Chu has said that he is “convinced that the nuclear waste issue is solvable” and has talked about ways that nuclear waste can someday be recycled.

More information on Nobel-prize winning Energy Secretary Steven Chu to follow!

STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Two days ago, President Barack Obama made his first state of the union address.  Of course, I was excited to hear him talk about his plans for helping our country “go green!”

The President talked about creating “clean energy jobs” (cool!) and passing a “comprehensive energy and climate bill” (very cool!)  He then talked about the importance of “clean nuclear power plants,” “oil and gas development,” “advanced biofuels” and “clean coal technologies.”

What is all that stuff?  None of it sounds very green to me!  Mr. Obama didn’t talk about solar, wind or geothermal power—the cleanest known energy technologies of today!

For the next few days, I will try to research the energy sources he did mention and provide information about each of them!  First up—nuclear energy!