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Letter: Nuclear energy is the only way to continue to stably sustain our growth without harming our environment

FILE – In this April 4, 2017, file photo, plumes of steam drift from the cooling tower of FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane, File)

As a physicist, I read and fundamentally disagree with: “Utahns must not bear the brunt of a bad nuclear idea,” May 10. America would be nowhere close to being the superpower it is today without the sustained investment of a significant amount taxpayers’ money since the 1940s to support research and development. Today’s “leaders” and investors expect an instantaneous return on money invested in technologies but research requires time and sustained effort. We would never have reached the moon with these attitudes which took roughly a decade.

One key element of America’s success has been the relatively low cost of energy (all forms), which is increasing in cost due to inflation, depleted resources, and international instability. We are also destroying our environment when using conventional hydrocarbon and carbon-based sources of energy and causing the climate to change. This will ultimately force us to seek alternative sources of energy that produce little or no greenhouse gasses.

That said, nuclear energy is the best compromise between a stable energy source and one that produces little greenhouse gasses. I too, would prefer “greener” sources of energy (wind, solar, etc). but these typically do not produce continuous “on demand” power and storing the energy collected via these technologies needs to be improved.

Nuclear energy sustains many nations around the world such as France, producing over 70 percent of its electricity. By using breeder reactors, we can drastically reduce nuclear waste.

Inexpensive energy is the force that drives our economy. Our nation needs energy independence and nuclear energy is the only way to continue to stably sustain our incredible growth without harming our environment and without depending on other unstable and undemocratic nations to supply it.

We simply cannot continue with the status quo.

MIchael Pravica, Henderson, Nev.

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