Anyone for new nuclear power plants?

It turns out that while we are getting rather upset about Iran building new nuclear power plants, we are planning to do the same… Well, of course it is not the same, Iran is doing it to turn the uranium fuel rods in power plants into plutonium and use it for warheads. Us, we already have as many nuclear arms as we might need and only need our power plants to generate energy that will stop us for being dependent of those countries from which we import foreign oil. In any case, back to our nuclear power plants, President Obama has announced an $8 billion in loan guarantees to build the first reactors in the US since the 1979 disaster of the Three Mile Island. Many of those who remember that date are not very happy about going back to nuclear power plants and the president can expect opposition, and this time bipartisan. The problem is compounded by the old age of America’s 103 nuclear plants that are being forced to extend their 40-year-old operating licenses by 20 more years. And that is worrying those who think about the safety of the plants. Just this week, the state of Vermont is expected to shut down an old nuclear reactor which has a history of leaks. James Moore of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group said, “A lot of folks on the left and right are waking up to the reality that it is a bad idea to give hard earned tax dollars to a new generation of reactors when we can’t manage the old reactors.”
As much as properly controlled and regulated nuclear power energy could be a good thing for a country and need not to be dangerous, building new plants without fixing or closing the potentially dangerous old ones is not a well thought out solution.