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CNN Live At Daybreak

Giving Nuclear Power Another Look

Aired July 27, 2001 - 08:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, all this week we've been looking at different sources of power. We've looked at water power and wind power and today, we're going to look at nuclear power.

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. It's controversial, of course. You remember the Three Mile Island accident, Chernobyl, but energy officials are now giving it another look.

CNN's Elaine Quijano is at a nuclear power plant in Maryland for us this morning -- Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Colleen and Carol, I'm at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, about an hour and a half southeast of Washington. This is one of about a hundred nuclear power plants across the country and together, these types of plants help generate about one-fifth of the nation's electricity.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO (voice-over): Inside these twin towers sit the source of power for half a million Maryland residents. Two nuclear reactors, each housed in containment units with four-foot thick concrete walls, together, these reactors at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant supply 20 percent of Maryland's electricity.

STEVE UNGLESBEE, CONSTELLATION ENERGY GROUP: We use uranium fuel which is heated in a reactor vessel -- a thick steel vessel. It turns water to steam, steam in turn turns a turbine, which in turn turns a generator to produce electricity.

QUIJANO: The cooling system for the reactors includes 12 pumps that draw in 200,000 gallons of water every minute from the Chesapeake Bay. Plant officials say this water never flows through the reactor itself and is, therefore, not radioactive. The water is then returned to the bay creating a continuous intake and outflow. At Calvert Cliffs, officials say the water that comes out is only one or two degrees warmer than its original temperature.

At the turbine building, two sets of generators crank out power, then power lines carry the electricity to local customers. Officials say it's a system that's worked well at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant for the last three decades. UNGLESBEE: We used those decades to improve our safety levels to world class levels, to improve our performance, to improve our good economics.

QUIJANO: Still, critics of nuclear power say there are better alternative sources of energy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO: And those alternatives include solar and wind power. But officials here argue that nuclear energy is the most efficient in their opinion. They say that one nuclear fuel pellet, about this size, generates as much energy as an entire ton of coal.

We're live in Lusby, Maryland. I'm Elaine Quijano.

Colleen and Carol, back to you.

MCEDWARDS: Elaine, thanks very much.

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