Paul Foy of the Associated Press wrote a story published today in the Evansville Courier & Press regarding nuclear power. It dawned on me as I was reading the story that nuclear power is not simply being discussed as an alternative energy prospect for the future in this country but rather, it is in high gear in many respects. As I noted in a prior blog, I can't help but think of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl when I think of nuclear power. However, many don't have the fears I have or else, maybe nuclear power really has evolved such that those fiascos are to be left in the past. For one thing, all of the controls and monitoring boards in one plant in Utah from the 1970s are being replaced and will be run via laptop. A laptop running a nuclear power plant--Wow. However, there are some things modern technology can't yet overcome with nuclear power. For instance, there is a real shortage of uranium concentrate, with consumption already outpacing production each year by 80 million pounds. The shortage is being fed by stockpiles, which are being used up. Another huge problem is the question of where to put the spent fuel rods--probably a "not in my backyard" type of problem in many respects. A repository is supposed to open in Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but not until 2017. According to the article, it may never open. So, then what does one do with the spent fuel rods? This ever-present problem may always be the wrench in the argument that nuclear power is clean power. How can it be clean power when you have tons of radioactive waste that have no where to go? I look at nuclear power still as a polluting form of energy production, but one with a delayed pollution factor as opposed to the immediate pollution one gets with say, burning coal. While it was kind of interesting to read how high tech nuclear power plants are becoming, some of nuclear power's biggest problems seem to be ones that have been present for some time and that may never go away.