The near-catastrophic failure of a nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island in Harrisburg, Penn., 25 years ago this month tempered the excitement over radioactive fuel as a source of energy. But in Wisconsin and in the nation as a whole, there is a new movement toward nuclear power. Proponents call it cleaner and more cost-efficient than alternatives.
Standing in its way are people worried about the long-lasting, hazardous by-products of nuclear power plants.
\They're not clean, they're not safe and they're not cheap,"" said Alfred Meyer, executive director of the Madison chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. ""And therefore I say we shouldn't have them in Wisconsin.""
Wisconsin has three nuclear power plants: one at Kewaunee and two at Point Beach.
UW-Madison's own nuclear reactor has run since 1961. It is a much less imposing spectacle than the stacks allowing steam to gush from the hot core of a power-generating reactor, but it helps teach the next generation of nuclear engineers who may one day design or work at those plants.
At this reactor, nuclear waste is not a problem.
""We are so small in size that we do not generate enough power to have to reload the core,"" said Director Bob Agasie. He said he same fuel rods have been in the reactor since 1978.
The fuel rods of commercial reactors become even more dangerous after they are used, Meyer said, and must sit in cooling pools for five to 10 years before being taken anywhere for disposal. He said the pools make frightening terrorist targets.
But the risks associated with nuclear power are not much greater than many other risks people take daily, according to Vicki Bier, a UW-Madison professor of industrial and nuclear engineering.
She said American society today is ""risk-averse."" That is, people shy away from the chance of unlikely but catastrophic events such as nuclear disasters, while accepting everyday risks such as air pollution and traffic accidents.
Nevertheless, the risks of nuclear power seem close at hand to people such as Meyer, who joined a protest on the Capitol steps last month to call for Wisconsin's nuclear moratorium to continue.
A bill in the state Legislature, AB 555, would break down regulatory barriers to building new nuclear power plants.
Bier said economics, particularly nuclear energy's touted efficiency, is the major factor driving governments toward its use.
""Unfortunately, all renewable resources don't have the output in megawatts that, let's say, a fossil plant or a nuclear plant has,"" Agasie said.
The one thing the nuclear industry may need most is a place to store its waste. A proposed storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada could store many years worth of waste, but its licensing is not complete.
When Yucca Mountain overflows and another storage facility is needed, some worry Wisconsin's Wolf River Batholith will be the next site chosen.
""If AB 555 leads to the building of new nuclear power plants ... we will have a hard time objecting to having the waste repository sited in our state,"" Meyer said.
