Hewitt, H. (2019, September 2). Opinion | Trump’s crucial decision on nuclear power. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/02/trumps-crucial-decision-nuclear-power/.
President Trump has issued a memo demanding a review on the domestic nuclear supply chain. Nuclear power and fuel refining have been both been neglected by the government and by extension, the people. Nuclear power is one of the feasible energy options that lowers our carbon input; supporting these builds and research is an essential step towards clean power. After the Fukushima scare, the last U.S. uranium refinery was shut down out of fear. We have since out-sourced for refined fuel creating a system that is dangerously dependent on foregin supplies. Our solution for now has been to use our own uranium reserves; but this solution is not financially effective or sustainable at the least. Our stockpiles could maybe last until 2040, but that is without any change in demand.
President Trump is likely more concerned with the ‘dependency’ the U.S. has rather than the environmental effects of burning coal; still the outcome of refining uranium domestically will be good for both issues. We are now relying on our stockpiles which, from an environmental scientist perspective, can lead to the tragedy of the commons. There needs to be more education about how uranium can be safely refined, this would ultimately end the stigma against nuclear power in the U.S. or at least calm it. Our solutions to this energy crisis are just delaying the effects rather than solving the problem at the core. We need to put money back into our refineries, finding effective ways to concentrate the ore with creating pollutants.
So I gather you are a nuclear advocate. And I think you’re right, Trump could care less about carbon. I didn’t realize we no longer could refine our own uranium. There is fear around nuclear energy- do you think it is well warranted? Or is it more emotional? From what I understand there is quite a bit of fuel in old nuclear weapons too- did the article mention that as a source of fuel?
I did not find any information on the use of nuclear power from stockpiles of weapons, but in another article I did find that the U.S. has enough uranium to last for decades. To answer your question, I don’t believe the fear around nuclear is well warranted. The stigma was born out of fear; of course there were accidents as there always are with new technology. We should not let setbacks of the past slow the futures progress. The technology has only gotten better.