Hey Look! A Distraction!

I was always one of those kids in the background doing the very thing that my friend was being yelled at for doing by the teacher.  I just figured that if the teacher is busy getting after somebody else, then I was home free...and the funny part was that most of the time I was exactly right!  While my mom was trying to clean the mud off my brother from him rolling in the mud puddles, I could roll in the puddles all I wanted and not be disturbed!

I don't think it is quite fair to say that this is what is going on with the nuclear industry right now in the United States, but hearing of the news from earlier this week, I am getting the same kind of feeling.  If you don't know what I am talking about, you should check this article out from the Wall Street Journal.  To sum it up though, the Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC), which is responsible for approving the construction of new nuclear power plants, just approved the environmental studies done for two proposed reactors.  What does this mean?  For one, I WILL HAVE A JOB!  But in more general terms, it means that the nuclear industry is not dying here, as much as some people would like it to.

The reason I bring up me rolling around in the mud (other than just to give you the image of a muddy me) is because it seems that some of the tensions were lifted off of the NRC while the Fukushima event was heavy underway.  I know this seems bass ackwards, but it really does make sense.  In light of such a terrible disaster in Japan, no one in their right mind would be thinking that the NRC would give a nod of approval to be building more of these things!  Just like my mother and my teacher would not believe that someone would do something while someone else was being yelled at for the exact same thing, we did not think that the NRC would take one of the biggest steps it has taken in 30 years toward the renewal of the nuclear power industry.  Not at least while one of the industries largest incidents was taking place.  I can do nothing but applaud the NRC for the effort, as they have just made a bold statement as to exactly where the United States stands on the issue.

Needless to say, the NRC has turned some heads and there are now some key members of Congress saying that we should hold back and look at other solutions.  All I can do to them is stick my tongue out at them and wave as we continue to leave them in the dust.  The nuclear industry is out to prove the point that we can provide the most power for the cheapest production cost, and we can do it safely.  That is something that 40 year old nuclear technology has been proving in the United States for quite some time, so why not let us play with our new toys (by that I mean our new technology).  Let us build the best that the human mind has conceived about nuclear power!

I might be jumping the gun a little soon about this, but it just seems that we still have the right to show that we are Americans and we can prove the impossible.  We can harness the power of the atom safely, and we have proven it.  We are way better at it now even than we were when we built the first set of successful reactors in this country.  I hope you will join me in the sticking out of my tongue and the putting of my thumb on my nose while while wiggling my fingers at those who are saying that it can't be done.  We are Americans!  Tell us it can't be done and the last thing we will do is let you be right.  The nuclear industry is as healthy as ever, if not more now that the world's eyes are upon it.