Nuclear power deserves to be part of the mix

The 34-year-old Cooper Nuclear Station will keep operating at least another 26 years, if the Nebraska Public Power District is successful with its latest application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The NRC's license renewal process is expected to take between 22 and 30 months, and will include an environmental review and review of safety requirements.

No discussion of nuclear power is complete without dealing with issues like potential environmental disasters and the actual, though still unresolved, issue of what to do with the nuclear waste.

But a look at the numbers quickly makes it apparent why nuclear power is an attractive source of alternative energy.

Take wind power, for instance, as touted by billionaire T. Boone Pickens.

To generate the same 828 megawatts of electricity as Cooper Nuclear Station, using figures from NPPD's Ainsworth facility, a wind farm would require 518 wind turbines, cost $1.1 billion and cover an area of land 31⁄2 miles wide stretching from McCook to North Platte.

It's obvious that wind power has environmental issues of its own. The same can be said for solar, hydro -- and certainly coal and oil.

It's clear nuclear power deserves to be part of the mix.