Could Nuclear Power Wean the U.S. From Oil?

bblackfrog asks: "Is a Federal nuclear energy program viable? That is, can the USA eliminate our economic dependence on crude oil with a large scale federal program to build and maintain enough nuclear power plants to replace our current oil-based energy needs? The obvious political hurdles are (a) the left opposes nuclear energy, (b) the right opposes federalizing energy, and (c) the oil companies and Saudis wield a lot of clout. This makes a federal nuclear energy program far fetched I admit, however I'm more interested in the economics. Slashdot has covered advances in nuclear power technology. China's doing it." (Read more, below.) "How much energy is required to replace our fossil fuel consumption? What are the initial costs of the program, and just how cheap could the electricity be? How expensive would it be for our industries to convert? How expensive for home and auto conversions? How much of this cost should be picked up by the government? Bottom line: is nuclear power cheaper than our current oil-driven middle-east policy, with all of its blowback?"

Comments

Re:gmail

[richy freeway]

Haha. Pretty lame troll attempt. Can't even get hosting without a bandwidth limit.

Muppet.

Re:Where France Gets It Right

[$criptah]

Normal Americans do not hate France. They do tell silly jokes about it, but no country in the world is exempt from puns because countries are different.

You have to understand that the United States is a divided country. We have the industrialized North, rural mid-West and South. What is acceptable in Boston, is not a norm in South Dakota and vice versa. And if you are isulted by a group of rednecks pouring French wine and screaming "We do not need no stinking wine!" please consider the source and smile. Those people are so poor and uneducated, they do not even know about it.