Monday, November 12, 2007

Energy policy: Nuclear According to a recent opinion poll Utahns are divided over nuclear power, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. From the article: Green River resident Nancy Dunham wouldn't mind having safe, clean nuclear power plants in the neighborhood to energize the local economy. But Moab resident Sarah Fields doubts reactors will fly because they are water hogs and will bring more waste into an area already riddled with the dangerous stuff. The two views illustrate Utah's split on the nuclear power plant issue, according to a new opinion poll by The Salt Lake Tribune. About as many Utahns would welcome having nuclear-power plants in the state as those who would oppose reactors, respondents say. Forty-three percent favor construction of nuclear plants in their state and 42 percent object. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C., conducted the newspaper's telephone poll of 625 likely voters from throughout the state Oct. 29-31. It has a margin of error of about 4 percent. The findings come just weeks after most Utahns learned about efforts by two legislators, Republican Reps. Aaron Tilton of Springville and Mike Noel of Kanab, to locate two reactors near Green River, Emery County. They would be Utah's first nuclear plants. If the plans go forward, the Utah reactors would be among nearly two dozen on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's schedule of license reviews for new plants... A newly formed environmental group based in Moab, Uranium Watch, has begun to put the proposed reactors in its cross hairs. Members are drafting an opposition letter to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and state legislators, said Fields, a Moab resident who is organizing the group. "This is not going to fly," she says. Moab is the scene of a U.S. Energy Department cleanup of uranium tailings that is projected to cost as much as $835 million and last for two decades. And it is upstream of a uranium processing plant that some have accused of "sham disposal" of radiation-contaminated waste. Uranium Watch is concerned about the proposed reactors' water use, on-site waste storage, endangered species in the Colorado River, electric transmission lines and other issues that will come up as the public considers the proposal. "Here we are trying to get rid of nuclear waste and they [the reactor proponents] want to come in," says Uranium Watch member John Weisheit. Category: 2008 Presidential Election 7:13:34 AM

© Copyright 2007 John Orr. Last update: 12/1/07; 10:33:01 AM.