The French Do Something Right

And we did something wrong when we all but banned nuclear power plants in the US. But the French we the opposite way and look what happened.

When much of the world spurned nuclear power, 30 years ago, the French, being French, decided to go their own way and embrace it. Paris, the “City of Light,” is lit by nuclear energy, which powers just about everything else in France: its homes, its factories, even its high speed railroads.

Nearly 80 percent of the country’s electricity comes from 58 nuclear power plants, crammed into a country the size of Texas. Pierre Gadonniex, the head “Electricite de France,” the country’s national utility says it all began with a French obsession for energy independence.

“In France, we have nearly no coal. We have no oil. So clearly, nuclear appeared to be the best way,” Gadonniex explains. “And 30 years later, it appears to be a very smart decision.”

Because nuclear plants emit no greenhouse gases, France has the cleanest air in the industrialized world, and because the price of oil is now around $60 a barrel, it has the lowest electric bills in Europe. In fact, France has so much cheap electricity, it exports it to its European neighbors. French nuclear plants supply power to parts of Germany, Italy and help light the city of London.

The greens were wrong in the 70s, as they were in the 60s over DDT and in the present over global warming. In fact, but blocking nuclear power plants, we were stuck with a lot more pollution than we would have. And our dependence on oil is much greater as a result.

Nuclear power is not only the cleanest form of energy, it’s one of the safest. The amount of serious accidents in the US can be count on one hand in 60 years, and none of them caused any fatalities or environmental damage. The only downside is nuclear waste, but we have a good facility to deal with that. The greens have been trying to shut that down for years. Ignorance is not good for the environment.

If people really care about greenhouse gasses and the environment. If they think we need to be more energy dependent, not less. Then they should embrace nuclear power. 

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