# 480    August 2003  Nuclear Power: Clean, Safe and Needing a
Level Playing Field   by Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford
Nuclear power is economical. All it needs is a level playing
field.  But the field is not level. For one thing, competing
power sources are heavily subsidized by society. Unlike nuclear
plants, they don't bear the full cost of disposing of their
waste. Much of it is just dumped into the atmosphere - pollution
that degrades the environment and causes illnesses and early
deaths. If nuclear plants were given tax credits for the
environmental damage they don't cause - or if the others were
charged for the harm they do cause - nuclear would win the
economic shakeout hands-down.  If Congress would assure the
nuclear industry that regulations governing the industry would
remain reasonably stable, the plants would be built.  Do we need
nuclear power at all? You bet. Without it, we can't protect the
environment and at the same time supply adequate electricity to
the 10 billion people who soo