McCain Touts Nuclear Power's Safety At Plant That Had a Partial Meltdown



(CBS)
From CBS News' John Bentley:

(NEWPORT, MICH.) – To show his support for nuclear power, John McCain
toured the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Plant here today, comparing the safety
of the plant to the Navy's warships he was stationed on.

"My experience with nuclear power goes back many years to being
stationed onboard the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear powered aircraft
carrier," he said. "I knew it was safe then, and I know it’s safe now."

The plant, 30 miles outside Detroit, hasn't always had the best safety
record. One of the reactors had a partial meltdown in 1966, and although
there were no injuries or release of radiation, the accident allegedly
led to the term “China syndrome,” after an engineer said the nuclear
reaction “could go all the way to China.”

McCain wants to build 45 nuclear power plants by 2030, although he
admits the storage of the spent fuel is a problem that still needs to be
dealt with.

Barack Obama has also expressed reservations about spent nuclear fuel,
and McCain sought to point out further differences between them.

"Sen. Obama has said that expanding our nuclear power plants, quote
'doesn’t make sense for America,' unquote," he said. "He also says no to
nuclear storage and no to reprocessing. I could not disagree more."

Obama’s stance on nuclear power, however, is somewhat more nuanced. Back
in December, he said “I start off with the premise that nuclear energy
is not optimal...I am not a nuclear energy proponent,” but today at his
town hall in Youngstown, Ohio, he seemed more open to the idea.

“We’ll double the amount of our energy that comes from renewable sources
by the end of my first term,” Obama said. “It means finding safer ways
to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste.

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Anyone wanna bet the Old Geezer didn't even know about the troubles at
the Fermi plant?