As president, John McCain would want to see the United States
build its first nuclear power plant in three decades. And then
he wants to see us build 44 more in the next three decades. It's
part of the answer, the Republican candidate says, to the
challenge of producing electricity without causing global
warming. Nuclear power plants, once the uranium is mined and
processed, produce no carbon dioxide. Currently, the country
relies heavily on burning coal and natural gas, both of which
produce greenhouse gases. For a generation, or more,
environmentalists have opposed the use of nuclear power,
primarily because the radioactive waste remains dangerous for
thousands of years, and there's been no politically palatable,
safe way devised to recycle or store it. Safety at individual
plants is also a big concern for communities in their shadows.
Some environmentalists have come around to seeing things more
like McCain: Given the enormity of the "climate crisis," dealing
with nuclear waste is a necessary evil. Sen. Ba