BP...

I know there are a lot of mixed emotions about the environmental disaster that has occurred in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of BP's and Transocean's negligence, but I think that there are too many complexities at stake here for us to completely shut down drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico at the current time. While I hope that we do so in the relatively near future, I think that we as a nation are not ready to limit our supply of domestic oil just yet. We still rely heavily on Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Mexico for our imported oil, and if we shut down the Gulf and the Alaskan oil fields, we will greatly hinder our bargaining position in the world's politics. (We don't want to be at the mercy of any country, friend or foe.) That being said, I do think we should be taking a more proactive approach to the development of more cost effective "alternative" sources of energy, whether they be wind, solar, or nuclear. Which I personally think all are viable. The only questions are: 1.) Can we improve the efficiency of solar panels enough so that our entire planet is not covered by them to meet the demands of our energy hogging lifestyles, 2.) Can we reduce the electrical resistance of the wires used to supply off-shore wind-generated electricity to businesses and homes on shore enough to make it economically viable, and 3.) Is our government willing to accept that while nuclear waste does exist, it can be recycled, reprocessed, and reused just like France and several other European countries currently do. Then, after it has been recycled a few times, the radioactivity emitted from the permanent waste is nearly non-existent.
I know most people are ill-informed when it comes to nuclear fuel, because in the US, we have a terrible fear of a meltdown similar to what happened to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. First, let me inform you that the Soviet nuclear reactor design is VERY different from the ones used in the US. In the Soviet reactors, as temperature increases, so does reactivity. This is a result of a design feature that gives the Soviet reactors a positive temperature coefficient of reactivity (TCR). In normal situations, this is perfectly acceptable, and it even aids in bringing the reactor up to full power faster. The problem arises when a casualty occurs, and as temperature rises, reactivity does as well. This creates a situation where the only was to control reactivity is to insert the control rods back into the reactor core. However, when reactivity reaches a certain point, reinsertion of the control rods no longer a significant enough effect to control the reactor, and it can quickly get out of control. In reactors built in the US however, we have a negative TCR, and therefore as temperature rises, reactivity decreases, thereby allowing the reactor to self-regulate itself.

Further, when the Chernobyl meltdown occurred, the regulators were running system tests, and had disabled all of the safety protocols in place to protect the system. This poor planning and the positive TCR resulted in the disaster we are all too familiar with at Chernobyl.

At Three Mile Island, there was a terrible disaster that occurred at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, as most of us are aware. This resulted from poor training of the plant operators, and the failure of a pressure relief valve. The automatic reactor vessel protection systems operated as designed. The problem was that the auxiliary reactor coolant pumps when isolated by cutoff-valves, in violation with NRC policy, and were unable to maintain cooling water flowing over the shutdown reactor. While there was a loss of reactor coolant and ultimately the reactor, the containment system worked. The radiation loss was minimal, and the risk of long term effects to the public were negligible. To read more about Three Mile Island, click here.

The American people have a long way to go before we will cease to be the most energy hungry nation per capita in the world, but hopefully we can learn to be more aware of the consequences of the things we do, especially when it comes to blatant disregard for our fragile oceans and tidal basins which are so critical to life, not just ours, but those of millions of sea creatures. BP, I know there are thousands of Americans who work for your various divisions, but I hope the US government does not let you slide on your bill to clean up this mess for which you are ultimately responsible.