LETTER: Time to go nuclear
Esmeralda 7, the canceled solar project reported on in the Oct. 11 Review-Journal, would have occupied 62,300 aces to produce just more than 28 million megawatt hours of energy per year based on a maximum of 450 megawatt hours per year, per acre. Sixty-two thousand acres of solar panels cover more than 97 square miles.
It would also require a large amount of backup energy from an independent source to carry the load when there is no sunshine.
According to Google, the Vogtle 3 nuclear reactor in Georgia generated nearly 34 megawatt hours in 2024. The Alvin W. Vogtle electric generating plant, which includes four reactors, cooling towers and related infrastructure, is spread across more than 3,000 acres on the Savannah River.
This shows that it is possible to generate a lot of continuous energy without a major disruption of the environment.
The Vogtle 3 reactor will be operating for 60 more years, at least. The Esmeralda 7 system would need to be replaced in around 25 years.
We can deal with nuclear waste if we try. America has been producing nuclear energy commercially since 1959. We can deal with accidental meltdowns as in the Three Mile Island incident. Absolutely no one was injured. We can design nuclear plants that are not subject to the events that caused the Chernobyl meltdown.
We must get on with developing non-CO₂ producing electrical energy.
