“No end in sight”

Those four words have been heard a lot recently as news agencies attempt to describe the damage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami March 11.

Fukushima has six nuclear reactors. When the earthquake struck, only three were active, as reactor 4 was de-fueled and reactors 5 and 6 had been shut down for maintenance. Immediately after the quake, reactors 1, 2 and 3 automatically shut down. Backup diesel generators came online to provide power for the water pumps used to cool the reactors.

Fifteen minutes later, a 46-foot tsunami flooded the plant and disabled the backup generators. With no power to cool the reactors, they began to overheat.

You don’t need a nuclear scientist to understand what happened next ą hydrogen explosions, multiple fires and a partial core meltdown. Spent fuel rods began to overheat as water levels dropped.

Initially classified as a level 4 accident on the International Nuclear Events Scale, it has been upgraded to the maximum – level 7 – with no end in sight. Some have drawn comparisons to Chernobyl and cleanup efforts could take decades.

“The best solution is to entomb the site for 40, 50, 60 years,” said Arnold Gundersen with the environmental consulting company Fairewinds Associates.

The events in Japan are playing out against the one-year anniversary of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig caused a fire that burned for 36 hours until the rig sank. Eleven people lost their lives, and 17 were injured in the accident. The repercussions continue to be felt throughout the Gulf region today.

While oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days, newscasters could only say “no end in sight.”

As a nation, we have struggled to develop a comprehensive energy policy. It has been debated since the oil shortages of the 1970s with little progress.

What has become clear is that any policy must take a long-term approach and embrace renewable energy sources ą solar power, wind power, hydropower, geothermal power ą to name a few. These energy solutions are not subject to depletion and do not pose cataclysmic risks to mankind and the environment.

Another consideration regarding renewable energy is to significantly reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Currently, we consume 30 percent of the world’s oil supply, but we only produce 2 percent of that total. Renewable energy liberates us from foreign oil markets while creating more jobs at home.

We believe it is time for our country to put an end to “no end in sight.” Make Earth Day, April 22, the day we begin to see the end of our dependence on nuclear power and fossil fuels.