Obama Sounds Death Knell For Nuclear Power

American Thinker

By Richard Henry Lee

Under the guise of cutting wasteful spending, President Obama is terminating support for the Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel repository in Nevada. While not unexpected, this development means that there will be no place to store nuclear waste, probably for decades, other than at temporary storage locations at each of the nation's nuclear power plants.

This termination decision was one among several contained in a document titled "Terminations, Reductions, and Savings" which were announced today by the White House to cut $17 Billion from the FY2010 budget.

 It seems disingenuous to suggest that canceling the Yucca Mountain project is going to help taxpayers, since the project is funded not by the taxpayer, but by the Nuclear Waste Fund. The Fund has about $30 Billion which is derived from an assessment on nuclear utilities based upon the amount of electricity generated. The cost is passed on to consumers.

President Ford and especially President Carter, effectively killed off the reprocessing option for spent nuclear fuel due to nuclear proliferation concerns, and Obama has now killed off the storage option for the foreseeable future.

This action will likely forestall the construction of new nuclear power plants which incorporate advanced safety and reliability features. These promising designs would add additional electric generating capacity without the huge carbon footprint of coal fired plants, which the Obama administration also opposes.

World-wide, other nations are turning to nuclear power to meet their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol for greenhouse gas emissions since sustainable technologies cannot bridge the gap between supply and demand.

 

The accompanying justification statement for the termination reads:

The President has acknowledged that nuclear power is -- and likely will remain -- an important source of electricity for many years to come and that how the Nation deals with the dangerous byproduct of nuclear reactors is a critical question that has yet to be resolved.

The President, however, has made clear that the Nation needs a better solution than the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. Such a solution must be based on sound science and capable of securing broad support, including support from those who live in areas that might be affected by the solution. Accordingly, Secretary of Energy Chu has announced that he will stand up an expert, Blue Ribbon Commission to evaluate options and make recommendations to the Administration for developing a new plan for the back end of the fuel cycle.

This reliance on getting the NIMBY crowd to support whatever solution Chu's panel decides means there will be no solution.

The Yucca Mountain project faced years of delay due to efforts of Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and others to block it. When the Democrats took control of the Senate in 2008 and Reid became Majority Leader, the funding from Congress was curtailed and the program was in serious trouble.

Other countries including France, Japan and the United Kingdom, reprocess the spent fuel since it contains useful quantities of fissionable plutonium and uranium which can be made into additional nuclear fuel while removing quantities of plutonium which would otherwise be place in a burial site.

The Yucca Mountain decision is another example by this Administration where energy policy is driven by the liberal left rather than a realistic assessment of our energy options.

And, in denying this nation the benefits of clean, reliable nuclear power, Obama has eliminated the one energy option which has successfully reduced greenhouse gas emissions on a large scale basis. Instead, we embark upon a hopeful, sustainable energy future using green technologies which are uneconomical and in many cases, unproven.

 Related:

 Yucca Mountain Repository 

 

Yucca Mountain Remains Critical to Spent Nuclear Fuel Management

Obama As God's Instrument

American Thinker

By Miguel A. Guanipa
January 25, 2009

I first endeavored to write this essay in order to validate for myself what I believed - from an inescapably finite vantage point - to be a most salient principle behind God's unsearchable providence. The principle I speak of is embodied in the Almighty's own caveat that he aims to exalt those who humble themselves, and humble those who exalt themselves.

I had hoped that this principle would be more aligned with the opposite of what virtually every media outlet had already declared as a sealed presidential election, notwithstanding the legion significant deciding factors which could have helped turn the recent presidential race to the opposing party's advantage.

There was the populist effect of the "Joe the Plumber" narrative, the eleventh hour unearthing of a video exposing Obama's undiluted wealth redistribution philosophy in his own words, and Obama's past liaisons with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and Reverend Jeremiah Wright, to name a few. It is left to the discretion of future historians to decide how to exculpate the media for the many other, even more disturbing nuggets that it actively suppressed or simply chose not to report.

We may all remember that, tasting the prospect of being entrusted with the enormous responsibility that comes with being president of the U.S., Barack H. Obama was feverishly engaged in a campaign designed to cover a multitude of sins. In one instance, he even sarcastically owned up to an alleged "weakness" of being "a little too awesome". The quip was received with a few chuckles by a captive audience of media elite, and little indication that any of them stopped to wonder even for a moment, whether the young senator actually believed what was only meant as a self-deprecatory roast.

We may also remember that, armed with an unprecedented amount of capital at his disposal, Obama seized every last opportunity to flood the airwaves with up to 30 minute long infomercials extolling the presumed superiority of his vision

Who could forget the time Obama stood to speak to his followers behind a makeshift podium with a presidential seal bearing his name. In a move of defiant expectation, his campaign operatives were given the green light to begin preparations for a win, by constructing the grandiose platform from which Obama was slated to give his much anticipated victory speech, three weeks before the voters had even decided. In short, he tried to exalt himself. And worse, it seemed that the majority of Americans would not be swayed from casting a vote for a man of whom they knew so little about, other than the glorified portrait presented by an adoring media.

Conversely, John McCain displayed some measure of unwonted humility - despite his honorable standing as a patriot, a label fully merited by virtue of his personal sacrifice for this country.

Almost by default, McCain was left to play the role of the underdog. Even in the last debate he admitted that if he received the people's vote he would be humbled.

Whether by sheer default or personal choice, at least McCain's outward deportment showed a little more deference toward a humble spirit than much of Obama's behavior, though no one can truly read either candidate's heart.

Hence I deduced that if there was any truth in what I believed to be God's principle, then it stood to reason that Obama should have gone back to his senate seat, a humbled man, not so beset by the inordinate ambition of holding a position for which he was ill prepared to serve, and McCain would have been exalted to the position of President of The U.S.

My hope was to be able to prove whether or not the principle still stands in this our narcissistic age. But it is likely that I may have misunderstood God's principle - which nevertheless still stands true - and melded it with my own personal political beliefs to the point that it became distorted beyond recognition. Perhaps I grossly misinterpreted what God unequivocally stated in the scriptures concerning the folly of human pride.

In and of itself that would be a humbling realization, and God knows I am often in need of them. What is more, God has no need of anyone validating his principles; they are able to stand on their own.

But while I may have misapplied the essence of God's principle, it may be more the manner in which He himself plans to unfold it that I failed to capture.

In other words, perhaps it is not that God seeks to humble a leader who appears to be intoxicated with pride - not yet at least - but rather to enlist him as the vessel of His wrath against a country He has long intended to judge, in the hopes that we may perchance curve His judgment, by recognizing our many sins as a nation, and choose to bow before Him (God, not Obama) in humility. It is, after all, the standard method in which He has humbled other nations in the past.

Only time will tell if that is the case. But one must admit that many of the signs surrounding Obama's ascent to power, especially the decisions that await him concerning the many uncertainties in the economy, the ever present scourge of terrorism, and the current global instability, do seem to be pointing in that ominous direction.