OPINION & EDITORIAL
Beyond cogen
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by Nick Pongratz
Friday, October 17, 2003
Today while you are walking around campus, do yourself a favor. Take a good look at each building you stroll past and try to comprehend the amount of energy it requires. Consider each light bulb, computer, elevator and heating system. Try to grasp the vast number of classrooms, laboratories and offices on campus. Now envision all of the students and researchers in these buildings who are taking advantage of the wonders of electricity.
A large educational and research institution such as the University of Wisconsin requires an enormous amount of energy to function each day, and unfortunately, we may soon experience shortages.
To help combat a possible energy shortage, the University is teaming up with Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) to build a cogeneration facility which will supply electricity, steam and chilled water to the campus and surrounding communities. Final approval has been given and the construction area is in its preliminary excavation phase. The facility is scheduled to come online in the summer of 2005.
In order for UW to maintain its position as a world-class institution, we must give our professors, researchers and students every available resource. This facility is clearly necessary to face the rising energy demands that we will experience in the coming years.
While building the cogeneration facility is a step in the right direction, we must also look further into the future. The cutting-edge research accomplished at this university requires more and more energy each year. In the future, we will be forced to decide to either cut back our research or supply more energy to the campus.
The university would be committing suicide if it scaled back research. Thus it would be in our best interests to begin anticipating the energy needs of the coming decades. Considering the fact that nuclear energy is one of the cleanest, safest, most reliable and efficient providers of electricity, we must take the initiative and promote the building of a nuclear power plant in or near Madison.
Most people agree that nuclear power generation is the most efficient means of producing electricity, but they question the safety and environmental impact of nuclear power plants. Visions of Chernobyl dance in peoples’ minds, yet nuclear energy in the United States is one of the safest forms of electricity production. Automated and redundant safety systems keep every nuclear facility and community safe. In addition, transportation of nuclear fuel is extremely safe. The Nuclear Energy Institute reports a safety record of “no radioactive leakage in more than 3,000 shipments covering more than 1.7 million miles.”
Likewise, modern nuclear power plants have an extremely low impact on their surrounding environment. A person actually receives a larger dose of radiation by walking near a coal-burning facility than from standing directly next to a nuclear power plant. Further, nuclear facilities do not emit any so-called “greenhouse gases,” since nothing is burned to create energy. If the United States were to find itself in the unfortunate situation of forced compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, one of the best ways to reduce carbon emissions would be to replace all coal and oil power plants with nuclear facilities.
Wisconsin is currently home to only two nuclear power plants, which are located in Kewaunee and Point Beach and supply the state with 20 percent of its energy requirements. Here in Madison, we will have an uphill battle ahead of us before we can enjoy the enormous benefits of a local nuclear energy source. Unfortunately, outdated Wisconsin state laws preclude the building of any new nuclear power plants within the state.
Like France, the United States should be investing heavily into a nuclear-powered electrical grid. Many residents of Madison are proud of their city for being “progressive.” For the sake of our university’s future, Madison should become a model for the rest of the country and progress into a Golden Age of nuclear energy.
It is inevitable that the new cogeneration facility on Walnut Street will one day become inadequate to supply the campus with its energy needs. Hopefully by that time, state legislators will wake up so that we are allowed to take full advantage of nuclear energy.
Nick Pongratz (njpongratz@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in computer science and mathematics. He is the president of CFACT, a free-market environmentalist student organization committed to engaging the campus on technological, market-based solutions to environmental challenges.
