Reply #67: Other nations will develop nuclear power.

[hunter]

I imagine they will then colonize whatever is left of the United States.

The level of corruption in our economy will not support either nuclear power or "green" power. Unlike cheap oil and coal, more sophisticated energy resources such as nuclear power and renewable energy require utterly ethical, honest, and competent management.

In the nuclear industry the penalty for mismanagement is disaster, and in the renewable energy business mismanagement results in the industry running at a net energy loss.

As United States citizens we don't see it when we look in mirror, but we are more like Mexico or Russia than other "first world" nations. We grew strong because we controlled great natural wealth. We could afford to be wasteful.

Our industry grew upon local resources.

For example, California became a significant fraction of the world economy because California had cheap water, cheap oil, cheap hydroelectricity, plenty of good agricultural land, and inexpensive labor.

Now that California has exceeded the capacity of these resources, things here do not look so rosy. Cracks are appearing in our facade, and the underlying corruption of the state's economic systems are revealed.

Arguments about the relative benifits and hazards of nuclear power are irrelevent here in the United States until we clean up our government.

Any nuclear power program endorsed by our corrupt political administration would certainly be a disaster. As our government currently exists, we do not have the capacity to run a safe or economically viable nuclear energy program.