Magic Radioactive Buggy Whips

A good political rule of thumb: if the Kentucky General Assembly thinks something is a good idea, do the oppposite.

But in D.C., Scott Brown's mental retardation appears to be contagious:

The Obama administration soon may guarantee as much as $18.5 billion in loans to build new nuclear reactors to generate electricity, and Congress is considering whether to add billions more to support an expansion of nuclear power.

Fortunately, it won't result in any actual nuclear plants. Unfortunately, it will flush zillions of tax dollars down the toilet.

If you listen to the rhetoric, nuclear power is back. Smashing atoms will replace burning carbon-based coal, gas and oil. In the face of a disaster movie-like future of runaway climate change--bringing drought, floods, famine and social breakdown--carbon-free nukes are cast as the deus ex machina to save us at the last minute.

SNIP

Even a few greens support nuclear power--most famously James Lovelock, father of the Gaia theory. In the popular press, discussion of nuclear energy is dominated by its boosters, thanks in part to sophisticated industry PR. This much seems clear: a handful of firms might soak up huge federal subsidies and build one or two overpriced plants. While a new administration might tighten regulations, public safety will continue to be menaced by problems at new as well as older plants. But there will be no massive nuclear renaissance. Talk of such a renaissance, however, helps keep people distracted, their minds off the real project of developing wind, solar, geothermal and tidal kinetics to build a green power grid.

Read the whole thing.

On the bright side, every dime wasted on the myth of nuclear power is a dime not wasted on the myth of Wall Street.