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| 5 Why Now?WhyThis Discussion? Written by Michael R. Greenberg, with comments by John F. Ahearne and Richard L. Garwin The simple answer to “Why now?” is that the governments and people of the world are being driven to consider nuclear power and other energy sources, along with conservation, as options for meeting increasing energy demand. This is not the first time this pressure has gripped the United States, but the increasing fear about climate change has added another dimension. Also, the United States, Russia, France, and Great Britain face major nuclear weapons waste issues as a cold war legacy. Beginning with the nuclear energy issue, on October 17, 1973, the members of the OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) embargoed petroleum shipments to the United States, some of Israel’s allies in Western Europe (initially the Netherlands) and Japan because of their support for Israel against Egypt and Syria in the Yom Kippur War. Just before the oil embargo in 1973, the average gas price at the pump was $1.80 per gallon (adjusted for inflation to 2007 dollars). In 1981, the average price was $3.00 (a 70% increase). These price increases sent a recessionary ripple through the economies of the dependent nations that spread across the world. High oil prices persisted until 1986. The embargo and price increases sparked an interest in exploration for conservation and new sources of fossil fuels. Governments ’ monetary policies became more restrictive, and interest in nuclear power increased. France, Belgium, Sweden, and Japan now heavily depend on nuclear power. In the United States, even before the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown in 1979, U.S. commercial business interest in nuclear power was waning. A worldwide recession during the oil embargo caused economists to reduce their estimates of the growth of electricity demand, and the price of new reactors seemed high to U.S. utilities. Furthermore, the U.S. economy grew despite the lack of growth of energy use. Serious efforts were made by all sectors of the U.S. economy to economize energy use. After 1986, the year of the Chernobyl nuclear incident, the economy continued to grow; while 6 | The Reporter’s Handbook: Getting Started oil prices declined and remained relatively low until the new millennium. Reprocessing nuclear fuel that has been used once in a nuclear reactor to generate electricity was considered too risky by the United States because it has the potential to be used for nuclear weapons proliferation. The incident at Chernobyl along with the extensive time required to construct and license nuclear power plants increased costs and further undermined the credibility of nuclear power. National leaders and utilities concluded that nuclear power in the United States was a bad idea. Other countries, such as Japan and France did not agree and moved forward with nuclear power plant operations. The events of the current decade are forcing reconsideration of policies examined during the embargo and price increases of the 1970s. The political instability of the world’s oil producing nations has created a fear of political blackmail by petroleum supplying nations in the United States and other countries. The rapid rise and fall of petroleum prices seems inexplicable even to some experts. Also, a new consideration is that during the past decade scientists have become convinced that the burning of fossil fuels is leading to global warming, whereas nuclear power does not contribute notably to greenhouse gases that lead to global warming. Therefore, nuclear power, despite its history of environmental and economic risks and despite waste management problems, seems to some like an environmental bargain. Proponents of nuclear power argue that France and Japan have successfully invested in nuclear power generation and have not suffered obvious environmental problems. The United States and other Western nations have observed the rapid growth of the Chinese and Indian economies and are concerned that competition for oil and gas will drive up prices still further and thereby undermine the economies of the developed nations. Nuclear power seems like a logical approach. Yet, there is obvious dissent from this position. Some propose a reduction in the use of carbon and nuclear fuel, arguing for eliminating subsidies for carbon-based and nuclear-based fuels, for heavy investment in solar and other renewable technologies, and for other policy changes that would largely achieve fossil and nuclear fuel reduction objectives in 30 to 50 years (see Makhijani, 2007). Often lost in these discussions are the distinctions between transportation fuels and energy sources for electricity...

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