Tentatively, nuclear power creeps back

Hades might be freezing over. Or at least, a different kind of climate change is prompting the state Legislature to do what not long ago was unthinkable in Washington state: probe whether nuclear energy can help meet the state's growing demand for energy in the face of aggressive carbon-emission cuts embedded in state law.

This week, committees in both houses will consider a bipartisan proposal to establish a joint legislative task force on nuclear energy. The panel would study current technologies, costs and environmental challenges of what to do with a radioactive waste stream.

Washington has had a difficult history with nuclear power — the failed finances of a huge public-power project to build five nuclear plants in the early 1980s. The Washington Public Power Supply System, a consortium of public utilities, built only one, which is still producing enough energy to power a city the size of Seattle. Bad projections and bad management caused the largest public bond default in history at the time. It took years for participating utilities to recover.

More than 25 years later, the energy landscape has changed, utterly. The reality of climate change prompted the governor and Legislature to enact an aggressive timetable to roll back Washington's emissions. Last year's law essentially banned new coal plants; the year before, voters approved an initiative requiring utilities to get more of their power from renewable resources, not including hydropower.

These changes have fueled investment in conservation measures, alternative-energy sources, such as wind, and efforts to develop wave and solar power. But many advocates of reducing carbon emissions concede nuclear power eventually might have to be part of the mix. Nuclear power currently accounts for about 20 percent of all U.S. energy production.

The bills have bipartisan support. And the architect of last year's aggressive energy legislation, Vancouver Democrat Craig Pridemore, is a co-sponsor of Richland Republican Jerome Delvin's bill in the Senate.

Climate change is a daunting challenge that requires eyes wide open to ensure cleaner emissions that don't paralyze our economy. Nuclear power might not be a solution, but it should be a consideration.