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Photo: Stefan Kühn

The Obama administration’s plan to increase the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program to $54 billion may repower the nuclear power industry. Some Obama supporters say they are disappointed by his commitment to nuclear power. They say he has ignored a highly charged issue: the ultimate disposal of nuclear waste.

“During the campaign, President Obama said he was open to reactors but a lot of the problems had to be solved first, and those problems haven’t been solved yet,” said Friends of the Earth director of public advocacy, Nick Berning. “We’ve got waste piling up at reactors around the country, but there’s no where to put it.”

The Obama administration scrapped plans for the Yucca Mountain repository. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission identified long-term, on-site storage of spent fuel at nuclear power plants as a safe alternative.

The global perception of nuclear energy fluctuates. The government, current events and media coverage influence public sentiment. Science fiction novels, like H.G. Wells “The World Set Free,” created the initial biases towards nuclear energy. Developments associated with nuclear energy were mainly kept outside the public’s eye until the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Hopes of nonviolent application dominated public sentiment after US President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech in 1953, which led to scientists mastering the atom and, eventually, proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Public safety concerns arose after the nuclear reactor accidents at Sellafield in the U.K., Three Mile Island in the U.S., and Chernobyl in Ukraine. Demonstrations across the world opposing nuclear energy occurred at nuclear power plants mainly throughout the ‘70s. Most demonstrations in the U.S. were peaceful and organized by grassroots groups. Demonstrations throughout Europe were larger and more militant.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in an article in The New York Times that the country’s revitalization of nuclear power is a “key part” of the government’s response to climate change. President Obama rallied public support for this “new generation of safe, clean” nuclear power plants last week in his “State of the Union Address.”

Somehow energy sources that emit little to zero carbon dioxide have become synonymous with “clean energy.” Advocates of nuclear power use climate change concerns to persuade the public to support policy in their favor. Nuclear power is not a problem-free solution to climate change. Problems associated with safety, proliferation and ultimate waste disposal remain unsolved.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that due to the effects from past fossil fuel emissions even if no carbon dioxide is emitted today or in the future, effects from climate change will still occur. Predicted sea-level rise may complicate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s plan to store nuclear waste at reactor sites if they are located near coastlines. The costs of construction, maintenance, disposal and liability are not worth the risks. Revitalizing the nuclear power industry may exacerbate problems resulting from climate change.