There was an interesting article in this month’s GQ on the merits of Nuclear Energy. The article is based around the 1979 meltdown at the TMI Plant at Three Mile Island. And, more importantly, why that single event shouldn’t shape our view of Nuclear Energy. But unfortunately it does.The author, Wil S. Hylton, spends an extensive amount of time touring the Plant:

The inside was like nowhere else in the world. It is tempting to say that if you were to wake up inside, without ever having seen a power plant, you would know instantly where you were. Pipes the diameter of a Volkswagen bus and painted in glossy primary colors stretched along the walls and the ceiling, springing into the room at ninety-degree elbows before shooting upward to the floor above or down to the one below. Hoses the size of anacondas coiled their way around corners and over door headers, and stop valves that looked like nautical steering wheels were strapped to the walls with tags to identify them. Everything was polished and reflective under bright lights, and the air seemed to shiver from the pipes’ vibrations. It was like being trapped inside a giant air conditioner.

The most interesting part of the article, though: The carbon footprint of a nuclear plant is precisely…nothing.