Political Quotes

“Again, I appreciate your joining me today. I want to quote from a Chicago Tribune editorial of March 19. I'll just read three short paragraphs: ``Here's why that is potentially a bigger problem than a meltdown: In the Japanese reactors, as in many U.S. reactors, the spent fuel is housed in large water-filled pools in the reactor building but outside the concrete-and-steel fortress that surrounds the reactor core. ``If the core melts down, any radiation released is likely to be partly bottled up by the containment vessel. ``Not so for the spent fuel pools, which often contain far more radioactive material than in the reactor. If the water that keeps those rods cool drains or boils away, the used fuel can catch fire. Result: A dangerous plume of extremely high radioactivity spewed into the air. ``Obvious question: Why do nuclear plants store spent fuel that way? ``Obvious answer in the U.S.: Yucca Mountain isn't open. In the 1980s, the Federal Government launched plans to ship nuclear waste to a storage lair carved into the mountain in Nevada and let it slowly and harmlessly decay.'' So there are benefits to nuclear power. If you're a climate change person and if you don't want carbon dioxide and if you still want a lot of electricity for us to use in all of our new technology, you'll have to have a generator. Yet, in this case, it's the used fuel.…”