Despite the call for practical “green”/carbon free energy sources to fill our growing energy needs, most of the emphasis has been on unreliable wind energy or highly costly and inefficient use solar panels. While the hydrocarbon boom brought on by fracking may very well lead us to an energy independent future with cheap affordable energy, it is not the only option available that the we have towards this goal.
The one “alternative” energy source that is cost-effective, and has less impact on the environment than hydrocarbons, solar panels, or wind turbines, is nuclear energy. Unfortunately, due to the obviously necessary government oversight, combined with the inevitable red tape, bureaucratic drudgery, and the inconsistency of policy from administration to administration, the United States is losing its capability to compete.
We are already at the point where recycling nuclear energy is decades off, thus leaving us no option but to just bury the used nuclear fuel. Only Finland and Sweden do not recycle their nuclear waste in any way, and they have already planned proper storage facilities, while the question of Yucca Mountain in Nevada is perpetually unresolved. The greater concern is that the United States is running out of nuclear scientists and technicians. Nuclear scientists, engineers, and technicians are retiring at a rapid rate and it has been difficult just to replace them in the critical jobs they are doing, let alone be able to innovate or even expand. This problem is decades old, but continues to accelerate.
