Depending upon how it is calculated, the cost to build and start up a nuclear power plant can run well over $10 billion. It represents a huge up-front cost, and brings with it serious and unresolved concerns about how to deal with the volumes of continually generated left-over radioactive isotopes. Based on current technologies, high-level nuclear waste requires some form of safe storage for over 10,000 years, a level of commitment unprecedented in human history. In effect, it forces us to obligate hundreds of future generations, simply to add an incremental amount to the electrical power that we enjoy today.
And yet, in spite of the costs and risks, we willingly continue to do it. Nuclear power is still considered a dependable and flexible source of electrical energy, free of greenhouse gases, yet not limited by the variabilities of sun or wind. Hundreds of nuclear power plants are in operation all over the world, generating over 10% of the world’s electrical production, with dozens of new plants under construction. In some countries, nuclear power plays a far bigger role. In France, fully 80% of the country’s electricity comes from nuclear power. In spite of rare high-profile accidents, such as Fukushima and Chernobyl, nuclear power plants can be argued to have less of a negative effect on long-term health and safety than the world’s thousands of coal fired plants that spew out billions of tons of pollutants and greenhouse gases every year.
Compare that to a dramatic new way of providing continuous power, an approach with the advantages of nuclear power, but none of the disadvantages. Solar Wind Energy has developed what some are calling the ideal renewable energy source. Unlike traditional solar and wind designs, it doesn’t depend upon the wind blowing or the sun shining. It can feed the grid with high levels of power day and night, with no wind at all. Its cost to build is a small fraction of the cost to build a nuclear power plant, and there are no worries about environmental waste material. It is totally green, with no carbon footprint and no noxious gases.
For information on Solar Wind Energy, visit www.cleanwindenergytower.com
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