2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Do you support fracking, or coal? [View all]JonLeibowitz
(6,282 posts)I understand the NIMBY problems, and the environmentalists, but when you compare to Fracking and Coal, is the comparison even of the same scale? Well, they say that the waste is a problem: people in other labs at my university and colleagues at other universities tell me that the nuclear waste problem can be mitigated with future reactors which burn leftover fuel. Thorium technology is ready to be explored, with the potential ability to go online in 10-15 years. It is stunning to me that we do not make more use of Nuclear, and instead use coal or do fracking.
In the interim, there are no real solutions other than use the current power mix available to us. However, domestic fracking has significant issues and I cannot support the destruction of lands and natural resources; people's water supplies are being contaminated -- it is a classic tragedy of the commons. I want to see our candidates talk more about addressing these problems.
Still, I doubt you will find any serious disagreement that in the next 10 years we will still need to use natural gas. The question is how we focus our energies (heh) for the next 10 years to have sustainable power sources after that. My vote is with Nuclear (and ultimately solar, but that is longer term).