Nuclear Power a MUST submitted to https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/contact/write-martin Feb 14, 2022 Dear Martin, Bless your heart. They say you studied mechanical engineering in college, but apparently you’ve forgotten nearly everything you learned, or never really learned it that well. In any case, it seems you don’t know that solar panels cannot be recycled. So by 2045 all the panels you’re having installed today will need to be replaced, while all of the panels that exist now will become toxic waste in NM landfills. How totally irresponsible and stupid is that? And apparently you don’t know or don’t realize that all of those solar panels we’re buying from China are made using dirty Chinese coal-fired power plants? And manufactured in dirty Chinese factories that are spewing out millions of tons of toxic Heavy Metal Waste into our atmosphere that can be measured as it arrives in Alaska? Or that the raw materials that are being used to create these toxic panels are coming from dirty mining operations in third world countries perhaps involving child labor? And perhaps you don’t know that the giant wind turbines that you’re subsidizing to install all over the state of New Mexico involve turbine blades that are unrecyclable. Exactly how are these blades RENEWABLE if they can’t be recycled? Twenty years from now, when the turbine generators have locked up due to overheating in the hot and windless New Mexico summer heat, what will happen to these giant hulking masses? What will you do to “recycle” the 900 tons of concrete at the base of each monstrous wind turbine? And meanwhile what are you going to do to protect the thousands of endangered species birds that are being slaughtered by these eco-crucifixes? What the heck is wrong with you and your fellow travellers that you have ignored the science? If you truly cared about the environment… If you TRULY BELIEVED that we only have ONE SHOT to get this right… If you truly believed that there were only 10, 20, 30 years left in which to solve this problem… Then there should be NO WAY IN HELL that you would choose your stupid course of demanding that we transition to dirty, unrecyclable, fallible, and sporadic/intermediate/daytime-only solar and seasonal/weather-related wind power. Instead you and your nitwit friends should be focused on a power source that is guaranteed to supply the power we need, at an affordable price, and with high reliability. I’m talking about NUCLEAR ENERGY. But not the nuclear power that led to either Chernobyl, or Three-mile Island, or Fukushima. I’m talking about RELIABLE and SUSTAINABLE nuclear power such as we have been receiving for years from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Station in Arizona, plus new sources such as small modular reactors (SMRs) and Thorium-based reactors that convert Thorium-232 to Uranium-233 and then burn the U-233. Such reactors have been shown to burn over 90% of their fuel, unlike current technology that must be replaced after as little as 10% is used, and the rods crack. Yet even with broken rods, this is a small expense given the VERY small habitat footprint of the standard nuclear facility, versus the huge footprint of your average solar farm. We, as Americans, must overcome this inordinate fear of nuclear power and recognize that this is the power source of the future. Even if there are concerns about radioactive contamination of water sources, this merely points out the need to process the water to extract the nuclear fuel that is right there for the asking. Why are we so afraid of a proven power source, and ignoring the dangers of (1) foreign control of our solar/wind manufacturing and mining operations, (2) habitat and wildlife destruction in the name of saving the planet (?), and (3) unrecyclable by-products of our wasteful solar and wind pipe dreams?
