and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

With all this new talk of fusion lately, I thought I'd put in my two cents on nuclear power. Sure, it would be great if we could harness fusion power (I mean, heck, a teen has created a home-grown fusion reactor.. again) but the one thing everyone never seems to talk about anymore is our regular 'ol fission. Despite the problem of spent fuel disposal (I still say we put it on rockets and send it to the sun) it is nevertheless a very environmentally friendly way of producing power. For those countries trying to actually following the Kyoto Protocol (the US is busy saying "what, me, worry?") it makes sense. Meanwhile here in North America we shy away from the roughly one cent per kilowatt hour it costs for nuclear fuel. Meanwhile, the US average cost of residential power is about 11 times that, at 10.94 c/kWh.

Certainly, when waste disposal, decommissioning, etc are thrown into the mix, the costs can reach towards 3 cents/kWh, but this is still far below alternatives such as gas and oil, and far more environmentally friendly than coal. Considering that the air pollution from coal burning is estimated to be causing 10,000 deaths per year, there would have to be 25 melt-downs each year for nuclear power to be as dangerous.

The French have made things work through economy of scale and a standardized design throughout the country. They now manage to produce about 80% of their energy from nuclear reactors. Meanwhile, coal accounts for roughly 54% of the power produced in the US - the single biggest source of air pollution in the country.

Coal burning causes acid rain and smog and is the leading cause of global warming. In an average year, a typical coal plant generates:

3,700,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary human cause of global warming--as much carbon dioxide as cutting down 161 million trees.
10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), which causes acid rain that damages forests, lakes, and buildings, and forms small airborne particles that can penetrate deep into lungs.
500 tons of small airborne particles, which can cause chronic bronchitis, aggravated asthma, and premature death, as well as haze obstructing visibility.
10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx), as much as would be emitted by half a million late-model cars. NOx leads to formation of ozone (smog) which inflames the lungs, burning through lung tissue making people more susceptible to respiratory illness.
720 tons of carbon monoxide (CO), which causes headaches and place additional stress on people with heart disease.
220 tons of hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds (VOC), which form ozone.
170 pounds of mercury, where just 1/70th of a teaspoon deposited on a 25-acre lake can make the fish unsafe to eat.
225 pounds of arsenic, which will cause cancer in one out of 100 people who drink water containing 50 parts per billion.
114 pounds of lead, 4 pounds of cadmium, other toxic heavy metals, and trace amounts of uranium.

One Chevy Suburban, a V-8 behemouth that gets roughly 17 miles per gallon, produces about 10 tons of greenhouse gases¹ a year. You'd need about 370,000 chevy suburbans to produce the same amount of CO₂ pollution as one coal plant. There are roughly 600 coal plants in the US..

Which is not to say vehicles aren't a problem. A single gallon of gasoline requires about 196,000 pounds of primeval plant and animal matter,

buried and compressed over millions of years. This is equivalent to the total production over a year’s time from “40 acres’ worth of wheat—stalks, roots, and all.” If you are inclined to pursue this kind of masochistic math, it means that filling up the 32-gallon tank of [a Chevy Suburban] is like taking all the energy produced by plants over the course of a year on 1,280 acres of land. The numbers suggest that this just might not be sustainable over the long haul.

Nuclear power, of course, requires very little fuel and does not generate significant amounts of air pollution or greenhouse gases.

[1] - The greenhouse gas estimates presented here are "full fuel-cycle estimates" and include the three major greenhouse gases emitted by motor vehicles: carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. Full fuel-cycle estimates consider all steps in the use of a fuel, from production and refining to distribution and final use.