Show THE mE VOICE OF BUSINESS I Po Power er to the people E B B By fly Richard L. L L Lesher President Chamber Clamber of ol Commerce of the United States The news media are often accused of being negative of reporting only the bad things There is some truth to the charge Front page headline stuff tends to be bc bad since the bad news is usually the most dramatic And there is always a temptation temptation temp temp- tation for lor a columnist to attack something because frankly its it's more makes fun for far more colorful punchy copy Besides if youre you're trying to present the business point of view theres there's never a shortage of idi idiotic tic accusations to deal with But if you stop to think about it the bad news really comprises a very small part of I your newspaper or of a radio or j of a radio or TV stations station's i broadcast day NEVERTHELESS I suspect that many in he the news business I feel leel slightly grateful-as grateful I dowhen do- do when something good h hap hap- p- p pens that is also newsworthy One of the best examples of that happy nappy to cross my desk lately is the two-to-one two rejection by California voters of Proposition 15 which would have ave effectively discouraged lie e c construction of nuclear ower plants in the state There are are risks associated with the use of nuclear power gust as there are risks inherent i the use of electricity natural naturals as s and gasoline w We accept hese ese latter risks because we Understand them and we we hove lieve the benefits outweigh em But n nuclear clear power is newer fore less familiar And the is often scary scary- specially especially when it is associated d rith th anything as awesome as tomic explosives So it i is iA easy 3 asee see how people could be away from nuclear power ver by ignorance or nation and consequently e e emore more to the credit of the pIe pie of California that they It nt JlE power ti ti fi be d i d in iner iner her er states in coming months re e ar are a few of the fun- fun to keep in mind if your our 1 state is one of them Why f-Why Why do we we need nuclear It is less costly than oil nd d unlike the fossil fuels contributes nothing to air p pollution It is also less susceptible to to- Interruption because of political develop develop- developments ments overseas And we will soon need every practical power source available to meet our growing energy needs even with drastic conservation measures measures Can it blow up like an atomic bomb No For an atomic explosion explosion ex ex- ex to occur the proper amount of nuclear material is separated by nuclear non material There is no way that it itcan itcan itcan can combine rapidly enough to explode TilE THE ABSOLUTE worst that could happen is for a reactor to become so hot its core melts This might cause radioactive steam or other material to escape into the atmosphere if a whole series of safety devices failed at once Some people could be harmed by such an event but the chances of being a victim are less than those of being struck by lightning The nuclear industry has compiled an enviable safety record No Noone Noone Noone one has ever been killed or even seriously injured in the operating experiences of our our 60 nuclear electric plants What about the disposal of radioactive waste This is a problem that deserved to be betaken betaken betaken taken seriously If we needed to depend on nuclear power for hundreds of years the accumulation accumulation accumulation ac ac- ac- ac of waste products could become difficult to manage But we dont Nuclear fission power will probably be important to us only for about 50 years just long enough to bridge the gap to more exotic longer longer-l longer lasting sting power sources such as solar energy and hy hydrogen gen fus fusion n neither of which poses a significant waste or safety problem Could terrorists steal material for an atomic bomb from a civilian nuclear plant Yes Its It's another threat that must be taken seriously Terrorists could also steal the material from a military installation installation installation in in- even without a civilian nuclear power industry Precautions can-and can will-be will taken IN SUM SUM- nuclear power has both advantages and va S with the former forme preponderant The hazards are well understood we know how to deal with them So I salute the voters of California for keeping cool heads while the opposition suffered a core care meltdown from froman an excess of uncontrolled hot air |