re: #617 quickjustice

I attended a lecture on nuclear energy a month ago. I asked about safety and reliability, which are the age-old questions about nuclear. The lecturer said that back in the 1990s, navy-trained nuclear engineers were able to improve safety and reliability of civilian nuclear power plants by an order of magnitude. If that’s true, nuclear energy is finally ready for prime time.

Further, nuclear is the only substitute for coal, gas, and oil that can deliver the quantity of electricity we need to keep our economy growing. Pickens thinks the Saudis may be out of oil within a decade. Even if he’s off by ten years, we still need to begin planning replacement sources of energy now that don’t leave us in thrall to the Venezuelans and Russians.

Oil is not going away anytime soon. We have significant reserves that are currently “off-limits” through legislation, not technical know-how. Other alternatives are also available. Algal Oil, oil extracted from algae and compatible with current infrastructure, is a proven concept, and there are companies at this moment doing the work to scale up its production and bring down its cost. Current estimates make it competitive with deep sea drilling in the next five-ten years, faster if demand calls for it.