With Bush's job aproval numbers as low as they are, I'm surprised he is still doing public meetings. In his discussion yesterday with senior citizens in Maryland, the first comment from the crowd was "First, welcome to the Blue State of Maryland."
The talk was supposed to be about the new medicare program, but the seniors were not staying on topic. A couple of people pressed him on nuclear energy and environmental issues... make the jump
Q The entire -- well, I'm one of the scientists who believes that -- and many of us do -- the greenhouse gases have been caused by us, and that it's about time that the United States took serious actions on the prevention of further greenhouse gases.
THE PRESIDENT: I exactly agree with you, sir, and that's exactly what we're doing. (Applause.) I think you're right. I thought the prescription to the Kyoto plan was the wrong way to go. On the other hand, I do know we can use technologies to achieve exactly that objective.
For example, second-generation nuclear power. It's a renewable resource. It doesn't emit, as you know, greenhouse gases. It's one of the reasons why I work with India and trying to help China, as well, to be able to develop a civilian nuclear power industry without -- with guarantees against proliferation, in order to protect the environment.
This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, it's always nice to see him admit that we need to take action on GHGs. But, the comment on second-generation nuclear is a cause for concern.
Second generation nuclear reactors are the older reactors that make up most of the units in operation today. (As I write this, I can look out the window and see a famous second-generation generating station--Three Mile Island.) If protecting the environment were a real concern, wouldn't it make sense to promote third-generation reactors that are passively safe and create less waste over old Gen-II systems?
Aside from safety problems, most second-generation systems require enriched fuels. I think that the best "guarantees against proliferation" would come from not building new reactors that require such fuels.
Why is Bush pushing the older systems? I can think of two reasons. First, these might be cheaper to field than some of the more advance systems. This is important in deregulated systems because industries can't guarantee they will be able to charge rates high enough to recover their costs. Second, it may be that they are trying to get nukes fielded quickly so the push for renewable energy doesn't lead to distributed generation that takes market power out of the hands of large corporations.
Are there other reasons he is pushing the old stuff?
transcript