Product Description

In A Brighter Tomorrow, Pete V. Domenici, the senior Republican Senator from New Mexico, has written a thoughtful and, at times, provocative assessment of nuclear power in the United States. He outlines what went wrong and why, and shares his vision and passion for a renewed commitment by this nation, and the rest of the world, to the dreams that nuclear energy can help fulfill.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1065977 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Pete V. Domenici has been a United States Senator, representing the citizens of New Mexico, since 1972. He was the first Republican in 38 years in New Mexico to be elected to U.S. Senate. With re-election in 1996, Domenici became the first New Mexican elected to serve five full six-year terms in the Senate. Following his re-election in 2002 to a sixth term, he became chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Domenici splits his time between Washington, DC and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Customer Reviews

I love this book - Senator Domenici has my vote!
Senator Domenici has written a compelling story, one that will give you an insider's view of the politics and history of nuclear energy in America. A brighter tomorrow - fulfilling the promise of nuclear energy is a must read for anyone who cares about energy independence. The book is also a good read if you just want to know what happened to nuclear energy development in the USA.

Pete Domenici has written more than just a history of nuclear energy - he also tells us about the current efforts in Congress to revitalize the nuclear industry. The need for nuclear energy today cannot be overstated, because it is the only proven, emission free energy source that can provide reliable baseload electricity to our national grid.

Imagine if you could fill the gas tank in you car once, and then drive continuously for a full year without needing to fill up again. That is what nuclear fuel does for a nuclear power plant. This means that nuclear energy is not vulnerable to the problems of short term price swings created by spikes in demand. Nuclear energy will never suffer the fuel shortages and price swings that threaten power plants that are dependent on natural gas.

In this book, Senator Pete Domenici, who is the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, describes what he believes would be the solution to the problem of nuclear waste. Only the most fearful and foolish people believe technology has reached its limits. It is self-evident that technology will advance beyond our present capabilities. Many futurists would say that is an understatement. Because scientific knowledge is growing geometrically, it is certain that future technology will be capable of reducing or eliminating the dangers of nuclear waste.

The Senator has proposed that spent nuclear fuel be transferred from the nuclear plant on site storage pools, to a federal interim storage site where it would be kept above ground for the next 50 to 75 years - Safely guarded and available for research. During that 50-75 years extensive investment in reprocessing and transmutation technology will advance to the point where spent nuclear fuel will no longer be considered a problem. The radioactivity can be changed so that it decays to the level of natural uranium in less than 500 years, rather than thousands of years. And the total volume, which is already small by comparison to any other type of waste, would be less than 5% of the volume removed from a power plant today, because of advanced fuel reprocessing.

Senator Domenici cites Dr. Denis Beller's essay, Atomic Time Machines. The essay can be found on the internet at AmericanEnergyIndependence.com in the nuclear section where it is title "back to the nuclear future". Dr. Beller describes the technology, called Transmutation, which can neutralize radioactive material.

I think the book gave a fair and accurate description of the anti-nuclear groups. The Senator exposes the deceptive practices of the anti-nuclear groups. Nuclear energy is not a right-wing conspiracy. Congressional support for nuclear energy is a bipartisan initiative, one that includes support from Democrats and prominent environmentalists:

"Environmental opposition to nuclear energy is the greatest misunderstanding and mistake of the century."
-James Lovelock, leading environmentalist, creator of the Gaia theory.

I believe if John Muir were alive today, he would join James Lovelock and Senator Domenici in support of nuclear energy. John Muir was not afraid of technology. He would have understood that nuclear energy is a technology that can help preserve our natural wilderness and at the same time help to advance economic progress.

Make Energy Not War

Future wars could be prevented if everyone who has taken a stand against the war in Iraq would turn their passion toward the goal of American Energy Independence. Standing against war is not enough - Standing together for Energy Independence will create a positive political force and a shared national dream - Peace through energy independence.

Nuclear energy is vital to fulfill the promise of energy independence.

Some Good Points!
Senator Domenici believes that most opposition to nuclear power plants is emotional and uninformed. For example, nuclear power plants in U.S. submarines dock regularly around the world without objection (except one port in New Zealand), France generates about 80% of its electric power from nuclear plants and reprocesses the fuel to reduce the amount of waste by a factor of four, and transporting an equivalent amount of fuel to a coal-fired plant involves 14,000 times more motive power.

"A Brighter Tomorrow" also informs us that nuclear power requires only 1/120th the land of wind or solar power; the fuel cost for nuclear generated power is only 26% of the total, vs. 85% for natural gas.

Hopefully efforts by Senator Domenici will succeed in reducing our reliance on carbon-based energy sources, thereby reducing air pollution, global warming, reliance on the mid-East, indirect subsidization of terrorism, need for U.S. military involvement in the mid-East, and vulnerability to oil production declines predicted to occur within ten years. (Yes, little electricity is used for transportation - however, Domenici sees the possibility of generating hydrogen for autos from nuclear power plants.)

But why Subsidies
A Brighter Tomorrow, Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy
Senator Pete V. Domenici with Blythe J. Lyons and Julian J Steyn
Rowman and Littlefield, USA 2004

There are many reasons to be grateful to Senator Domenici for writing this book. Nuclear power provides inexpensive electricity and heat when and where you need it without demanding trainloads of coal or tankers of oil or gas to feed the power plant. Nuclear fuel, with its essential U-235 is one million times as energy rich as coal, and we have abundant supplies remaining in the USA.

Who could explain the extraordinary safety record of nuclear power, yet the inordinate fear of nuclear power plants? It does not make sense. Senator Domenici sees clearly and throughout the book explains his efforts to do what is right, not what is fashionable. Unfortunately fashion has ruled and today, despite the great success and proven safety of nuclear power, we have no new power plants. Instead we have unfounded fears and smug empty-headed victors threatening to unfound other parts of our economy. They frighten the public away from nuclear power by convincing the public that because a lot of radiation can kill people rapidly a little radiation spread around the globe will surely kill millions slowly. This isn't true. Our schools and newspapers should do as Senator Domenici recommends, try and spread what is true. Radiation near our nuclear power plants and submarines is safe. In fact, it probably prolongs life. We creatures thrive in low levels of radiation. There is a word for it, Hormesis, and many studies of the phenomenon. Today, understanding that radiation does not lead to doom is as important as knowing the world is round, not flat.

Reading A Brighter Tomorrow is made difficult by replacing names with initials. Who can remember the dozens and dozens of code initials? IAEA, NTI, HEU, FSU. I picked these off a page opened at random, page 146. If the words were spelled out, the book would only be a page or two longer and the reader would understand what he was reading.

I would recommend that the senator do a second edition with a chapter explaining what goes on in a nuclear reactor, how elements are transformed and heat generated. But Senator Domenici is up to something so destructive I worry how we will fare with or without nuclear power. Free enterprise is evidently now a thing of the past. Senator Domenici, in the first ten chapters convinces the reader that nuclear power is economical. Then on chapter 11, page 215, he states that he tirelessly supports a 1.8¢ / kWh tax credit for new nuclear power plants. (He also supports the same subsidy for solar and wind power) Multiply it out for yourself. On page 207 read that we need 335 GWE of new power plants (I presume subsidized nuclear). At 1.8¢ per kWh the product is $6,030,000 per hour.

Five thousand hours of that in a year is thirty billion dollars! Senator Domenici will rob us blind. What can he be thinking? Those who use the electricity should pay for it. If it is bad for us to burn fossil fuels then let's raise the price of doing so, not arrange subsidies for certain favored alternatives.

Lobbyists and politicians must worry that raising prices might cause our appetite for electricity to slacken; that we will turn the lights off in the day and hang the clothes on clotheslines. Thus, they plan to have taxes pay for our power. So, we'll know we better use it because we already paid for it.