Nuclear Is a Shining Power Source

Regarding “Nukes May Look Greener Amid Hazy Power Options,” June 10:

If operating the San Onofre nuclear plant, which has provided safe, reliable, affordable and non-air-polluting electric power for 2.2 million Southern California homes since 1984, is an example of a “dismal, long-term operating record,” then I guess this particular plant is guilty as charged.

During the energy crisis of 2000-01, San Onofre and Diablo Canyon generated enough “in-state” nuclear power for 4.5 million homes, at a price of less than 5 cents a kilowatt-hour. Meanwhile, Enron and many others like it sold fossil-fueled electric power at rates above 25 cents a kilowatt-hour.

Don’t provide nuclear power with a backhanded compliment; instead offer it the handshake it so richly deserves in aiding California and America’s energy situation.

Edward L. Quinn

Vice President

Longenecker & Associates

Dana Point

*

All our energy choices have negative effects and we need to choose among them, keeping those negatives in balance with the benefits. Nuclear power does not produce air pollution or greenhouse gases. It does produce large amounts of economical power, and its wastes can be well-controlled.

When nuclear power is measured against that standard, we see the alternative energy sources fall away, and fossil fuels show up as much poorer choices. We will need nuclear energy to get us through the coming decades, even if we impose extreme measures to limit energy usage.

We must abandon the luxury of ideological opposition and start working in earnest on even better nuclear energy systems.

Neil B. Morley

Adjunct Associate Professor

Mechanical and Aerospace

Engineering Department

UCLA

Westwood