The Science Blog: where science and politics meet

"Several of the nation's most prominent environmentalists have gone public with the message that nuclear power, long taboo among environmental advocates, should be reconsidered as a remedy for global warming."

It's clear to me, anyway, that wind, solar, hydro, biomass and efficiency will all be important and useful, but won't be enough to satisfy the world's electricity needs. Nuclear will be enough.

Separately, I attended a speech with President Clinton on Saturday night where he discussed the many millions of people (mostly children) who die each year in Africa from diarrhea and other diseases directly linked to dirty water. Building plants to clean the water would be a great step forward for improving the human condition, but requires electricity. And, I think the last thing we want to do is build a bunch of dirty power plants in pristine Africa. Why not build some nuclear power capabilities in Africa to improve the access to clean water and save lives?

[Updated 5/16/05 9:39 p.m. PT] The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) also must have read my blog, because their magazine Mechanical Engineering just came to my mailbox today with the their Washington Window column titled "A Comeback for Nuclear Power?".

# posted by Michael E. Webber, Ph.D. @ 11:07 AM