This is in response to George Erickson's excellent April 17 commentary, “ Nuclear power is the real green energy. ”
For the last 50-plus years I have been a no-nukes person, but within the last five years I have become a “know-nukes” person. I am not a nuclear scientist, but I am a Minnesota-licensed electrical contractor with a background in photovoltaics. We own the two vertical axis wind turbines you may have seen on the east side of Interstate 35 in Willow River. I am fully aware we need to stop producing carbon dioxide from the burning and using of carbon sequestered in fossil fuels millions of years ago. The potential to produce energy from new nuclear options — which could also use our stored nuclear byproducts, commonly referred to as "nuclear waste" long into the future — is very promising. I encourage everyone to be open-minded to new nuclear, which would be an almost carbon dioxide-free energy source. There is a world of information available to search.
If we could solve our persistent nuclear byproducts-storage problems and produce carbon dioxide-free power well into the future, we owe it to future generations to pursue it. We all need to reduce our carbon footprint.
There is a reason the fossil-fuel industry is supporting solar and wind energy and not nuclear power. Nuclear power would be a dependable constant energy source that would reduce our use of fossil fuels.
Tom Kurhajetz
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Willow River
