Roth: Crisis poses unavoidable issues

The world is watching with intensity as the nuclear crisis in Japan unfolds. The quake and resulting tsunami damaged nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear generating facility. As I write this, three of these reactors are facing meltdown possibilities as a result of an inability to effectively cool the fuel rods. The human and environmental cost of such an event would be devastating.

Painting a very broad brush, inside all nuclear power generating facilities there are fuel rods made with zirconium that contain uranium pellets. These rods are submerged in water, and the resulting nuclear reaction inside the rods creates an enormous amount of steam. That steam forces turbines to turn and generate electricity.

The earthquake in Japan stopped the flow of water to the fuel rods that kept them cool. Even though emergency mechanisms were deployed to stop the nuclear reactions, the rods are still extremely hot, exposed to air and ultimately not cooling. The fear is that these rods will melt. The result is a release of hydrogen and radioactive gas. These rods burn at insanely high temperatures and can be virtually impossible to extinguish. To date, the valiant efforts of the Japanese government and assistance organizations to properly cool the rods have not been immediately successful.

Germany, in response, has shut down the operations of its nuclear facilities built before 1980. Singapore and Switzerland have stopped the approval process for future plants. China, one of the world’s largest energy producers, just most recently announced that it will suspend all new nuclear power plant development until it can effectively review all of its current plants and those under construction.

Oklahoma is one of 16 states without a nuclear power plant here in America. There are 104 across the United States. Oklahoma’s Legislature, in House Bill 1573 by state Rep. Scott Martin, R-Norman, has recently considered allowing for the development of nuclear power facilities in Oklahoma.

There are nuclear plants close to Oklahoma.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ranks the risk of an accident caused by an earthquake to be incredibly low. Two plants in Arkansas rank 90 out of 104; two in Texas, 28th; and one in Kansas, 45th, in their relative likelihood to be affected by seismic activity. It’s unclear where a facility in Oklahoma would rank. The U.S. Geological Survey found that the fault line in Oklahoma caused an earthquake felt in January. Additionally, while we are not tsunami-prone, we certainly can have extreme weather conditions, being located in the heart of tornado alley.

Yet, there is a different threat to the development of nuclear energy. There are no long-term waste storage sites in the United States. Shipping nuclear waste internationally poses a terrorist threat to the United States. There is also an enormous regulatory scheme for the development of nuclear energy, making its production costly. This scheme is a result of the enormous risks that come with nuclear energy production, risks we are now tragically realizing in Japan.

The next steps for the nuclear energy industry needs to be to quantify the risks associated with seismic or other natural events, and then do everything needed to minimize their occurrence. Arguably, nuclear energy is cleaner than traditional methods such as burning coal because there are lower carbon dioxide and other pollutant emissions.

But this crisis only highlights the need to invest in cleaner, alternative, and infinite forms of energy that are not volatile. This way, when a natural disaster does strike, it is not exacerbated by our risks within our electrical systems. Oklahoma legislators should be positioning our state to lead the nation and the world in clean and safe forms of energy.

In the meantime, we wish the best for our friends in and around Japan and hope they make a quick recovery from this tragic devastation.

Jim Roth, a former Oklahoma corporation commissioner, is an attorney with Phillips Murrah P.C. in Oklahoma City, where his practice focuses on clean, green energy for Oklahoma.