According
to Walt Patterson at the London-based foreign affairs, questions the government
would build nuclear plants when there are so many other source of energy
generations. Patterson said, “Why turn the slowest, the most expensive, the
narrowest, the inflexible, and riskiest in financial terms.”
As I
was reading this article named Nuclear
power: Energy Solution or Evil Cur, by James Melik, I realized that
throughout the article “cost” was brought up multiple times. This is the topic I
would like to discuss in this blog.I
wanted to start out by stating that there are multiple types of cost. What do I
mean by that? Their all tangible cost such as capital investment of equipment needed
for the power plant, operations cost and others that are easily measured by
using a financial equation. The second type of cost is an intangible which are
not fully taken account for when arguing the benefits of saving money with
alternative energy production. An
example, what is the future cost to society or the environment that might need
to be taken account for?
We
as a society have a narrow view and short -term mentality. Yes, we can maybe we
save on cost of production where one kilogram of natural uranium yields about
20,000 times as much times as the same amount of coal, but what is the boarder view
on this subject. In supply chain management there’s a term used as total cost
of ownership which looks at broader view of costs, this includes many
intangible costs. The most productive and less cost solution doesn’t always mean
it will be a better option in the overall picture. In this case the overall
picture would be society.
I
asked to take all aspects of alternative energy board, narrow, short and long
term views, and see if it makes sense as a whole. There also needs to be an
analysis of all stakeholders involved. Their might be benefits or influences
that make a decision maker make a decision for personal gain. We have seen this
throughout the world and our nation.
Is
society as a whole, currently and in the future fully benefit from the
solution? Furthermore, there are plus and minus for any solution, but we as
society need to weigh them out and see which solution is best fitted for our
reality.
Isai
Montes De Oca
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