And there is no better place to locate these reactors than the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. To make it happen, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs to approve a private-government partnership. A private utility would produce electricity and market it in the Northwest and intermountain area. The Department of Energy would use the installation for research and development. In the absence of a national energy policy, this country is using natural gas as its primary source of new power generation.
Gas is an efficient source of home heating.
But half of its energy value is wasted in a gas-fired electrical plant. Public acceptance of nuclear power is growing, in spite of a political vacuum for resolving the issue of waste disposal. Sixteen months ago, only 51 percent of American adults thought new nuclear plants were a good idea, and in October 1999, only 41 percent of adults agreed with the idea. Fossil fuels are not limitless. But rivers have run out of either efficient or environmentally acceptable dam sites.