By Zach Scheidt
This post Nukes For Retirement appeared first on Daily Reckoning.
The fallout from the Japanese Fukushima nuclear meltdown has been nothing short of disastrous.
Fukushima was a nuclear power plant, damaged by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011. The accident has led to radioactive material potentially spilled into the area’s groundwater leaving an environmental nightmare.
Perhaps more devastating than the accident itself was the effect Fukushima had on the global electricity market.
Today, the fallout from this event has left well over 21 million people in horrible conditions… breathing poisonous air… with contaminated clouds blocking out the sun.
So you might find it surprising that today I’m advocating a program I’m going to call “Nukes for Retirement.”
“I find it odd that our reaction to the Fukushima disaster was to stop the building of new reactors with better safeguards, and to continue generating power with older less compliant facilities.”
That’s a paraphrased quote from legendary resource investor Rick Rule as he introduced a speaker at last week’s Sprott Natural Resource Symposium in Vancouver.
The speaker was the CEO of a small uranium company. And I have to say, his presentation was one of the most thought provoking sessions of the entire week.
Take a look at the picture below. It’s one of many that you can easily find by searching the web for “Beijing air quality.”
Source: South China Morning Post
The smog you see above covers not only the city of Beijing, but numerous other cities in emerging countries like China and India.
The problem, is that these growing cities have a desperate need for electricity. But up until now, the majority of power is being produced by coal-fired power plants.
Some would argue that these are “safer” than the nuclear power plants at Fukushima. But is it really better to have populations in the tens of millions that are drowning in air contaminated by dirty coal electric plants?
The World Needs a Balanced Energy Plan
Now, more than ever, the world needs a more balanced energy plan. One that uses renewable sources such as solar and wind — along with natural gas and nuclear energy — to meet the growing demand for electricity.
Today, technology has advanced to the point where nuclear power plants have much better safeguards built in to avert disaster. And these plants are producing power much more efficiently and with essentially zero air pollution.
If you ask me, it makes absolutely zero sense to take lessons learned from the Fukushima disaster, and do absolutely nothing with them. Instead of burying our heads in the sand and writing off nuclear energy as an option, we should be working to build stronger and more robust reactors that can safely meet our power needs.
Apparently, I’m not the only one that thinks this way.
After a six-year winter of moving away from nuclear power, new plants are finally being built and coming back on the market.
According to Amir Adnani — the speaker who gave the presentation at last week’s natural resource conference — there …read more
Source:: Daily Reckoning feed
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