Trending
DEAR EDITOR:
This is in response to Ron Selak's April 23 article in which Bill Siderewicz compared nuclear power to Netflix and Blockbuster.
I'm not a nuclear engineer, but even I can recognize how crazy it is to compare Ohio's power grid to an online video service. I support keeping Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants in service. What will happen when we put all our eggs in one basket of natural gas plants?
No one is talking about fuel supply. Nuclear power keeps enough fuel on hand to keep reactors running 18 to 24 months. In the event of terrorist attack or natural disaster, nuclear energy can keep the power on. If the natural gas supply gets interrupted, we lose power. When the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining, nuclear power will keep our ATMs, internet routers, gas pumps and our grocery check-out lines running. I remember the brown outs we had over a decade ago. I don't want to see electrical grid instability like that again. When you remove two big contributors to that grid, Perry and Davis-Besse, instability is exactly what you will get.
A Dec. 5, 2018, Market Watch article reported natural gas was diverted to home heating because of the deep freeze the nation was in, taking natural gas away from the power plants. We need diversity in our electric, which you get when you have natural gas, solar, wind and nuclear energy. We need to keep the lights on and our homes heated.
Natural gas, right now, is cheap. What happens when we rely on it for all our power needs? What happens to electric costs when the price of natural gas increases?
Mr. Siderewicz, who is testifying against nuclear, is invested in natural gas. The Lordstown Energy Center produces 25 percent of the power that Perry produces. If Perry closes, he can build four more plants to fill the demand. If my wallet was in natural gas, I would testify against nuclear, too.
I know state Rep. Michael O'Brien is against nuclear, which makes sense as the Lordstown Energy Center is near his voting district and a lot of money has been donated from the energy center to local projects.
Clean energy intends to level the playing field. By removing various mandates, the savings to your monthly electric bill will be more than the $2.50 credit that is being sought. This means by keeping nuclear plants open, your monthly electric bill will decrease. However, if you want to compare nuclear energy to Netflix, streaming video on your TV is four times more expensive than these nuclear power discussions.
ROGER M. PETERSON JR.
North Bloomfield