A worst-case scenario of a fire at the aforementioned Cove Point LNG plant is that a major leak could ignite and carry a fireball along the surface of the Chesapeake Bay up to 5 miles. That is not the scenario that prompted the expenditure of $31 million at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant for a fifth layer of emergency back-up gear to avert a repeat of the disaster at Fukashima, Japan. A reciprocal scenario is the possibility of a large aircraft crashing into the nuclear plant resulting in an explosion that gets compounded by more explosions from the LNG plant. Let's hope Murphy's Law doesn't evince itself by demonstrating the unintended linkage between these two contiguous facilities.
More likely, Calvert Cliffs will, like hundreds of other nuclear power plants, prove to be a financial mistake because of the cost of decommissioning and disposal. Nuclear power is costly in so many ways that the U.S. has been practically in a nuclear plant construction moratorium for the past few decades. Not as well known is that adding nuclear power is a poor solution to global warming since a great deal of greenhouse gasses are released in the process of mining uranium fuel. Other forms of nuclear power, fusion in particular, are gaining substantial interest among deep-pocketed investors as a possible remedy to these issues.
In spite of all of that, I am interested in seeking employment at Calvert Cliffs. I am nuclear-trained and experienced, the money is good, and someone's got to do it - at least until it becomes manifestly too expensive.
