Safe Nuclear Energy

Peter W. Huber and Mark P. Mills (co-authors of the book The Bottomless Well) believe that nuclear power plants are a viable solution to the energy needs of the future. They say that since nuclear material provides so much power from such a small amount of fuel, power-generating facilities can be massively over-built to protect them in the event of accident or terrorist attack.

Indeed, there supposedly has never been a case of a significant amount of nuclear material being spilled during transport in the U.S., even after major road accidents. This is apparently due to the fact that the containers used to transport dangerously radioactive material are so massive and well-protected, that virtually nothing can damage them. In fact, containers are tested by purposely allowing a moving locomotive train to collide with them. So maybe Huber and Mills are onto something – perhaps we can be safe even with nuclear power plants all around us.

And perhaps transitioning the U.S. and other “first-world” economies to dependence on nuclear-derived power rather than fossil fuel-derived power could lead to a safer world situation than the current dependence on Middle Eastern oil and the military conflicts that has caused.

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