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the Gulf of Mexico. In recent years, a number of leaks of radioactive water have stoked environmentalist ire , though local residents were not exposed to dangerous doses of radiation. Meanwhile, nuclear proliferation risks remain a prohibitive concern for many expertseventhose who believe that nuclear energy can play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And many environmentalists continue to give nukes the stink-eye becauseas the Lantern noted in an earlier columnafter 50 years we still don't have a long-term plan for storing high-level commercial nuclear waste. The Obama administration is trying to scuttle the controversial, long-struggling repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and has formed a panel to consider alternative options . In the meantime, drycask storage can get us through the coming century, but those used fuel rods will remain a problem forat least another 9,900 years after that. Reprocessing and reusing spent fuel is technologically feasible but isn't practiced in the United States thanks to high costs and fears about proliferationand it still results in some waste. Though this state of affairs is distressing, it's worth noting that long-term disposal is a problem we're saddled with regardless of what steps we take next: Whether we ramp up nuclear energy production or shut down all our plants tomorrow, we'll have at least 62,500 metric tons of used nuclear fuel to deal with. Atomic energy also generates some environmental concerns that aren't discussed as often in the media. Take water use, for example. Like conventional power plants, a nuclear site cranks out electricity using steam-driven turbines. Cooling those operations often requires a whole lot of water , the drawing and releasing of which can affect aquatic wildlife . Uranium mining can also damage the environment. Abandoned mines from the Cold War era continue to pose contamination problems in the Navajo Nation. (Today, most of the uranium used in American reactors comes from Canada, Australia, and Russia .) Mining and milling operators must deal with mill tailings the radioactive material left over after the uranium has been extracted from the oreas well as waste rock and radiologically contaminated equipment. For all this, it's worth noting that uranium is a very efficient energy source: One ton of natural uranium can produce the same number of kilowatt-hours as 16,000 tons of coal or 80,000 barrels of oil . Perhaps it's because she was born after Three Mile Island (and wasn't old enough to watch the news during Chernobyl), but the Lantern doesn't find herself particularly freaked out by atomic energy. The long-term waste conundrum seems more pressingafter all, isn't the notion that you don't bequeath problems to your descendants a major tenet of environmentalism? At the same time, global warming is itself a dire legacy, and every energy technology has its pitfalls. So if nuclear power can play a role in cooling our planet, the Lantern thinks it deserves to stay on the table.