I look back on the post World War Two history of America with a special fondness. It's often described as a simpler time - to our world-weary eyes, often invaded by the relentless 24-hour news cycle and the information monsoon we wade through each day, it certainly seems like it was. The reality is different, because a nation coming out of a devastating war with a world-leading economy takes on a pressing responsibility. The penalty of leadership is the charge of innovation, but we came through in strides in those years. And no breakthroughs carried more national importance than those in atomic power generation. A thriving nation demands new sources of energy, and the potential to tap into the realm of physics for this power demanded immediate action.
In those days everything was "Atomic" - submarines, airplanes, the Batmobile's batteries, and random spiders on high school field trips. Atomic ray guns, stamped sheetmetal affairs shooting sparks from an internal revolving flint, sold for 10 cents in the back of comic books, and Ford built their Seattle-ite Atomic Concept Car, which has the dual distinction of being a supremely cool set of wheels somehow graced with the most nonsensical name since the Edsel.
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| Six wheels, heated seats, flux capacitor . . . |
Back then, the word "atomic" seemed to embody a future of near endless supplies of cheap electricity. It was almost a symbol of hope for the future, with stories about a lump of uranium the size of a softball powering huge cities for years on end. Despite the associated fears of atomic war, the optimism was real and grew - for a time.
Environmental groups, activists like Jane Fonda, and mostly left of center politicians managed to, in the ensuing decades, put a stop to this wonderful tale. Through controversial legislation called the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 the government abolished the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission), which had been originally created during the war to produce and test nuclear material, safety techniques, and handling procedures. In 1954, Congress passed a replacement to the Atomic Energy Act which gave the AEC more autonomy in safeguarding nuclear power plants, and also allowed them to promote atomic energy and the nuclear economy. This did not sit well with the left, and the legal actions they began in the late '60s to triple the licensure burden on fission-plant operators culminated with the new laws of 1974, which created in it's place the NRC, or Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Full stop. Notice the change in name. Is it semantics, or does Atomic Energy Commission sound just a little bit more hopeful and positive than Nuclear Regulatory Commission? The first is a bunch of scientists in lab coats, holding Tesla coils and talking excitedly about their latest breakthroughs; the second sounds like a group of elderly bankers on vicodin sitting at a boardroom table staring at each other.
In any case, the regulatory burden on American nuclear power is such that it often takes upwards of three years to obtain even a license renewal on an existing, safe, nuke plant. The NRC implemented a new license process in 1992 called "Part 52", which is supposed to be a one-step operation that replaces the two-step procedure of the old "Part 50" license process. In reality, the licensing process is still a swamp filled with red tape, endless draining legal challenges, and construction delays due to last minute protests and injunctions. From the time a license is sought to the time construction begins on a new site for nuclear power can be as much as 10 years, which means in that time the financing could dry up, legal challenges could be lost or reversed on appeal, and the politics around the building site could shift dramatically, taking public opinion with it.
One of the creeping problems generated by liberalism is the energy crisis we find ourselves on the verge of facing. Between drilling moratoriums and stifling regulation on atomic energy, America finds herself running on a pretty short fuse as far as energy reserves go. Even when we release oil from our national defense reserve in largely symbolic moves when the price at the gas pump rises, we often are forced to ship it overseas simply to be refined fast enough to meet the demand of the economy. Rolling blackouts in New York City and the Southwest are a symptom of a national energy policy that seems to be positioned around the "evil" nature of energy companies. The power that America needs is being held in limbo by liberal interests and politicians, and meanwhile nations like France enjoy over 70% reliance on atomic energy. Here in America, especially in Vermont and Michigan, there are cries for nuclear shutdown and halting construction of new plants.
In my opinion, one of the priorities for the new Congress to pursue is just as important as rolling back Obama's agenda, and goes beyond Cap and Trade. We need to wrap up a new energy policy that allows nuclear operators to get their foot in the door faster and protects them from frivolous and repetitive legal challenges from left-wing organizations. There is too much at stake to allow the government to roadblock our energy future.
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