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| | | Public not thrilled about nuclear power | | April 9, 2001, 07:45 PM | | |
| SEATTLE – Two decades ago Washington state built five WPPSS nuclear power plants. Today, only one is up and operating. The others were abandoned - at a huge cost to ratepayers. |
So talk of reinvesting in nuclear power has some cringing.
“We've been there, done that, we tried it, it didn't work, let's go forward, not back,” says energy consumer, Maxine Reigel.
But Vice President Dick Cheney, on NBC's “Meet the Press” says nuclear power is the better choice.
“We need to build 65 new power plants a year in this country for the next 20 years at a minimum, maybe 90 plants a year. My own view is some of them ought to be nuclear and if they are, that's the environmentally sound way to go,” said Cheney.
Environmentally sound? Not so says a Hanford watchdog group. We still don't know what to do with nuclear waste.
Plus, the department of energy budget released on Monday slashed the funding for nuclear cleanup. In Richland alone, cleanup efforts will lose $56 million next year.
“That's getting cut, and he wants to invest in nuclear power at the same time. It's a huge irony and very hypocritical... because that's the type of attitude that created the problem with America's nuclear waste in the first place,” says Jerry Pollet of Heart of America Northwest.
Across Washington State, residents are split. According to an exclusive king 5 flash poll of 500 people, when asked “do you believe we should generate more nuclear power in Washington,” 44 percent said yes, 43 percent said no, and 13 percent were not sure.
When asked about the nuclear waste, Cheney said "that's something that still needs to be looked at."
Also, KING 5 News has learned Energy Northwest - the former WPPSS - is going to study how much it would cost to get one of the unfinished nuclear power plants up and running.
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