http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/17/bill.gates.nuclear/
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(CNN) -- Say you were to give Bill Gates a really great present -- like the ability to cure crippling diseases or to pick all U.S. presidents for the next 50 years.
Gates would like those gifts, sure.
But you wouldn't have granted his one, true wish.
The Microsoft-founder-turned-philanthropist said at a recent speech in California that, more than new vaccines for AIDS or malaria or presidential selection power, what he really wants is clean energy at half its current cost.
To do that, he said, we'll need new technology.
Gates -- a father of the personal computer and quite the tech powerhouse -- said one of the brightest hopes for clean, cheap power is a new form of nuclear power plant that reuses waste uranium from existing nuclear reactors.
It's kind of like radioactive recycling, and, on its face, can sound like a miracle.
Gates actually described energy innovation in those terms: To prevent famine, poverty and the hardship that will come with global climate change we need "energy miracles," he said at the TED Conference in Long Beach.
Some nuclear scientists and critics say the nuclear technology Gates highlighted is misguided, naive and expensive.
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I would copy over the whole story but that website is annoying as it pulls in crap from the sides. Feel free to read the full link.
Nuclear power is the way to go even if the technology they are looking at doesn't pan out.
And even Obama sees the light!
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/...obs/index.html
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Washington (CNN) -- President Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees Tuesday for two nuclear reactors to be built in Burke County, Georgia.
A new nuclear power plant has not been built in the United States in three decades.
The new reactors are to be part of an expansion of an existing nuclear facility near Augusta, Georgia, operated by Atlanta-based Southern Co.
The loan guarantees will help create 3,500 on-site construction jobs and 850 permanent operations jobs, administration officials claimed. The reactors will help provide power to over 550,000 homes and 1.4 million people, it said.
"This is only the beginning," Obama said during a visit to an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers training facility in Lanham, Maryland. "We'll continue to provide financing for clean energy projects ... across America."
The president acknowledged that construction of new nuclear facilities will meet with some political resistance. Nuclear development has traditionally been opposed by more progressive elements of the Democratic Party. But nuclear power, he said, remains the country's largest source of fuel that produces no carbon emissions.
"To meet our growing energy needs and prevent the worst consequences of climate change, we'll need to increase our supply of nuclear power. It's that simple," he said.
At the same time, the president argued, traditional Republican proponents of nuclear power should acknowledge that comprehensive energy legislation is needed to help provide incentives to make clean energy more profitable.
Any new nuclear facilities, he promised, will "be held to the highest and strictest safety standards."
Leading congressional Republicans -- including both Georgia senators -- were quick to praise Obama's decision.
"This announcement represents a step in the right direction," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia. "The power generated by [the Burke County facility] is safe, reliable, emissions-free and environmentally responsible."
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Take that you dirty hippies! It is about time America moved forward into the 21st century! I don't like Obama very much but the fact that he's willing to ignore the blubbering greens is something I can respect.
