US lawmaker, environmentalist spar over nuclear power

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

US lawmaker, environmentalist spar over nuclear power
  
WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - Does nuclear power have a future? 

That question was at the heart of a brief verbal exchange on Thursday 
between Alaska Senator Frank Murkowksi and an environmentalist 
testifying before the lawmaker. 

Murkowski, the Republican chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural 
Resources Committee, pressed Alan Nogee, energy program director for 
the Union of Concerned Scientists, for answers about his group's 
thoughts on nuclear as a clean source of power in a nation 
increasingly worried about global warming. 

Nogee said while nuclear is certainly free of "certain emissions," it 
poses other problems, like what to do with the thousands of tons of 
radioactive waste generated from the nation's 103 commercial power 
plants. 

He also said there are safety risks with nuclear plants. 

Murkowski injected that nuclear "has no emissions," a point made 
often in radio advertisements by the nuclear power industry in the 
Washington D.C. area. 

Many proponents for taking action against global warming want America 
to ratify the Kyoto treaty, which aims to cut emissions in 
industrialized countries from fossil fuels, like oil and coal. At the 
same time, the environmental movement swears off in advocating 
nuclear power as a replacement fuel. 

Nogee said his group has no problem with economically viable nuclear 
power plants remaining open, but objects to giving operators 
subsidies to keep them in business. 

"Nuclear power should stand or fall on its own," Nogee said, noting 
the industry is "very mature." 

Murkowski immediately brought up the fact President Clinton is 
threatening to veto legislation passed recently by the Senate and 
House to cure the waste problem. That bill would relocate spent 
nuclear fuel from the 103 plants to a centralized dump in the Nevada 
desert by decade's end. 

Nogee said the Union of Concerned Scientists had nothing to say on 
that immediate matter. 

Clinton objects to environmental oversight provisions in the waste 
bill, having pushed for years that the Environmental Protection 
Agency have the sole authority over radiation exposure standards at 
the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. 

Nuclear power generates nearly 20 percent of the nation's electricity 
needs. Scores of plants will see their original operating licenses 
expire next decade, but some owners have already sought 20-year 
extensions from the government. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March broke new ground by 
approving the first extension request before it, extending the 
operating life of Constellation Energy's <CEG.N> Calvert Cliffs Unit 
1 and 2 for 20 years each.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
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