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While the Commonwealth Party advocates alternative energies, fusion research, energy conservation and environmental intitiatives we also endorse nuclear fission energy as the best means of meeting the power needs of today's society. Why? Other types of electric generation (specifically fossil) are more certain to have adverse environmental consequences or to be less desirable in implementation. This is not to say nuclear power does not share some problems and controversies but weighing it all together and adding refinements, nuclear power is the best method as far as large grid electric consumption is concerned. How so? Fossil fuel electric generation will definitely cause environmental degradation while nuclear power is cleaner in process though storage of spent fuel rods is a hot potato. Here those effects can be lessened by adopting a similar method that the French use. They use their nuclear waste in a second tier of deriving power and thus they have less waste and more electricity production. On top of that, the Commonwealth Party proposes to get rid of that remaining nuclear waste by invoking a reliable and tested rocket system to ferry waste into space, to the moon or even into the sun. Such a rocket system would be designed to be cost effective, reliable and to have safety features for the nuclear payload such as high impact resistant compartments with high heat tolerances and even a parachute system for soft landings if need be. Ferrying the waste into space is a sound idea since space is full of cosmic radiation anyway, especially beyond the Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. Nuclear power has proven itself to be relatively safe overall despite some noteworthy incidents. With properly designed plants and back-up systems, nuclear reliablity has been and can be further maintained. Consider the proportion of electricity that is nuclear generated day after day and one will come to the same conclusion as science has over which method to rely on for large scale power production. For now, nuclear is the best method with the least immediate environmental impact. Of course, we will still advocate alternative power sources, conservation and consider future development possibly away from large-scale, power-grid distribution as technology and economy will allow. One area of concern of late though is security at the plants and storage facilities and we strongly encourage and will enforce greater requirements. |