It’s too dangerous. It’s too expensive. There’s no solution to the waste problem. Anti-nuclear activists have thrown every excuse in the book when it comes to the reemergence of nuclear power in the United States, and they’ve all been dispelled. Today, with the costs of energy rising with no end in sight.

Joanne Von Alroth of Investor’s Business Daily says,

“Until recently, many shunned nuclear energy thanks to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. That’s changing thanks to screaming oil prices. Nuclear energy has developed a new and improved image — it’s cheaper than fossil fuels. It’s also increasingly seen as a cleaner energy source than coal, which remains the most-used energy source in the world.”

Nuclear power has been integral in decreasing energy dependence and reducing reliance on importation of oil for a number of countries. One example is France. After the oil shock of the 1970s, France took an active approach to reduce its dependence and on oil and rapidly built nuclear plants. Presently, almost 80% of electricity in France comes from nuclear energy; in fact, France is the largest net exporter of electricity because of its vast quantity of nuclear energy.

As an island that is not rich in natural resources, Japan is another country that has been increasing its energy security by means of nuclear power. Nuclear already provides 30% of the country’s electricity; however, Japan is working to increase this to 37% by 2009 and 41% by 2017.

Since the U.S. is looking to increase its energy independence and at the same time reduce its carbon footprint, nuclear energy provides the means to doing both economically. Nuclear tech­nology is a proven, safe, affordable, and environmen­tally friendly energy source that can generate massive quantities of electricity with almost no atmospheric emissions and can offset America’s growing depen­dence on foreign energy sources.