Hey GOP – forget France as a nuclear power exemplar

For the second week in a row, a leak has been found at a French nuclear plant.

Now, I’m not like the Green Party. I’m not against nuclear power per se. Nor am I against all government subsidies to nuke plants.

But, those subsidies shouldn’t be unrealistic. And, they shouldn’t be done at all until we straighten out the long-term waste issue.

That said, I oppose Yucca Mountain. Not primarily because of the faulting and storage concerns there, but because I think we need to get beyond NIMBYism. If Americans want nuclear power to be part of a solution for relatively cheap electricity, barring the Manhattan Project of conservation efforts, then they need to help pay the price. If that price for nuclear power includes a dozen long-term depositories around the country, and another three dozen versions of the WIPP site in Carlsbad, N.M., then that’s what it includes.