By Lee Webber
In one of my recent columns as well as a few previous ones I have suggested that Guam might want to look into the potential of using the power from nuclear energy to generate electricity for the island.
In a recent news story, it was noted that the new federal missile defense agency (MDA) program may bring with it some small, possibly more portable, nuclear power plants for these missile sites.
That thought actually gave me reason for significant pause.
The idea of placing even a small nuclear power plant at or near a potential missile site brought back many thoughts that created even greater significant pause than I mentioned earlier.
Placing even small nuclear power plants directly in the potential path of incoming missiles conjured up memories of nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.
The potential, imagined and real, for devastation in the areas themselves as well as the surrounding areas and our ground waters pierced me to my core.
[The] actual federal positions and decisions that have been made regarding previous nuclear testing and storage of nuclear waste materials in the Pacific region only further added to my concerns.
While hardening Guam is not really an option, doing so with non-nuclear methods makes much better and longer term sense from this resident’s perspective.
We have the ability to engineer, harden and properly ventilate and drain structures to house conventional power generation facilities that can and will power the island during severe storms.
These are times during and after which we are the most vulnerable.
It is also within reality, given our geographic location and current federal plans, to be a real option.
Additionally, we have the ability to place all of our secondary power grid underground.
Hardening our power system as well as the grid is imperative. It is also imperative to properly connect that underground power grid to the water and waste-water pumping systems as well.
And as Ginger C. Cruz noted in a recent piece, working it into the spending ticket for the overall defensive buildup of the island makes sense.
We most certainly need a defensible and sustainable place from which to fight should, God forbid, that need ever arise.
Our sheer location on the globe places us in a very enviable position from a strategic standpoint. But, only if we remain usable to ourselves and those who would seek to take advantage of that use.
Should we become unusable to ourselves we then become unusable to our adversaries as well.
Having survived in one war and a multi-month siege my preference is to die here from natural causes.
While not born here, after some 55 years on this beautiful island, Guam has become home and I plan to die here.
Personally I would much rather contend with a diesel-fuel spill or leak as opposed to a nuclear one.
Harden up Guam!
Esta.
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Lee P. Webber is a businessman and civic advocate, the former publisher of the Pacific Daily News, a former president and publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, and a former director of operations for USA Today International/Asia
