Nuclear Power

Had a nice conversation with my dad yesterday, now that they're back from the family reunion in Michigan. Sounds like everyone had a good time, and the assisted living building my grandfather has just moved into sounds like a really good place for him. Good care, nice new facility, more social opportunities.

My dad told me they're headed into a heat wave this week, with temps predicted to be in the high 90s to low 100s. And I quipped that they should come live in a country again where you have no AC at work and none at home. However, I went on to say that a lot of the British look down on Americans in a way for our level of energy consumption and pollution that we create. And my dad said that evidently, nuclear power has come back to the forefront of the discussion for energy sources. Production of energy and the building of power grids has been largely neglected for too long now, and as a result all the brownouts and blackouts are getting worse, and it's nearing a serious problem. My dad thinks pretty soon there's going to be a big scramble on the power front, as the demands for energy increase, and the power companies try to make up for not doing anything the past decade or two to expand. Given that there's never been a nuclear power failure (some near misses for sure, like Three Mile Island), seems like more people are willing to revisit the nuclear power issue at this point. I think I need to do some reading up, cuz this is pretty interesting, but I don't know much about the nuclear power debate, or alternative options.

I'm off to meet Tufts Nicole in central London for a touristy type day, though I'm pretty tired-- between the massive lorries and street-sweeping trucks that race down Harrow Rd at night, making all the houses shake not to mention the awful noise, as well as the group of people screaming French at each other under my window for going on an hour in the wee hours of this morning, I didn't get the sleep I was hoping for (even though I thought I'd sleep like the dead after a night of dancing!). Ah well. More later.