Japan wakes up to electric power need
Posted: THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2012
Skyrocketing fossil fuel use and looming power shortages have caused Japan prime minister Noda to order the restart of two nuclear reactors. Prime minister Noda is defying the public's irrational panic about nuclear energy that prevails in Japan.
Similar irrational panic in the United States caused the shutdown of our nuclear energy expansion after Three Mile Island. The result is the pollution from burning billions of additional tons of coal with emissions of mercury, sulfur and greenhouse gases.
Nuclear reactors emit only water vapor, and the spent fuel could be stored at Yucca Mountain.
When will we ever learn?
Rolf Westgard,
Deerwood and St. Paul
