Bush goes nucular

WashPost:

Bush Calls For New Nuclear Plants
President Talks Of Environmental Benefits, Safety

LIMERICK, Pa., May 24 -- President Bush promoted nuclear power Wednesday as part of his answer to energy and environmental problems as more companies consider taking advantage of government incentives to build the nation's first new nuclear plant in decades.

In the shadow of twin giant cooling towers, Bush said that his plan to expand nuclear power would curb emissions contributing to global warming and would provide an "abundant and plentiful" alternative to limited energy sources. Bush called the nuclear sector an "overregulated industry" and pledged to work to make it more feasible to build reactors.

"Nuclear power helps us protect the environment. And nuclear power is safe," he said to loud applause from workers at the Limerick Generating Station, about 40 miles from Philadelphia. He added: "For the sake of economic security and national security, the United States must aggressively move forward with construction of nuclear power plants. Other nations are."

And what will become of the deadly nuclear waste that's generated? We'll leave that for the same future generations that are expected to pay off Bush's trillions in debt.

Fortunately, he's not in charge any more. What he says is largely irrelevant, unless he can order some agency to secretly build nukes as part of the war on terrorism. (Maybe I shouldn't give him any ideas. He doesn't read this blog, but I know Rove does.)

Grist, the online environmental magazine, calls him Nuke Skytalker:

Bush pushes nuclear power at home and abroad

President Bush has embraced nuclear power with a vengeance (on us?). On a tour of a nucular ... er, nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania yesterday, Bush called for the construction of new nuke plants to help curb greenhouse-gas emissions. "Let's quit the debate about whether greenhouse gases are caused by mankind or by natural causes; let's just focus on technologies that deal with the issue," he said. Thanks to a new raft of nuke subsidies Bush signed into law last year, 16 companies have expressed interest in building new plants, though none has submitted a formal application. Exelon Corp.'s president has said his company has "no intention" of building a new nuke plant until there's a solution to the problem of where to put nuclear waste. What a fuddy-duddy! Also yesterday, Bush signed on to a treaty with the European Union, Russia, Japan, India, China, and South Korea to spend $5.9 billion attempting to build the world's first nuclear fusion reactor in France. Fusion technology has never succeeded, but like victory in Iraq, it's always been just around the corner.