Patrick Moore sparked a long overdue debate on nuclear energy ­ Washington Post, 4/17/06. The sad reality is, there are NO options open to us except nuclear energy.

Renewables like wind and solar energy are prohibitively expensive in capital cost, about $4700 ­ 7500/Kilowatt. Since wind does not blow nor the sun shine all the time, there has to be a standby source of power which fills in the gap when the wind or sun is down. The only candidate is nuclear power. The capital cost of nuclear reactors is a factor of 3 lower ­ around $2200/Kilowatt. To replace fossil fuel with nuclear reactors would cost around $ 1/2 trillion. Nuclear technology is much improved in last 50 years. A nuclear reactor can in principle be built in 5 years. .

Scientists like Jim Hansen of NASA say we must start (more…)