45 New Nuclear Reactors by 2030?
It is abundantly clear that energy policy will be the key issue in the upcoming 2008 presidental election. The price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas will likely be north of $5/gallon by then. Today, presumptive republican presidental nominee John McCain declared that he wants to build 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030. A position I wholeheartedly endorse... as does Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore (see here).

McCain Sets Goal of 45 New Nuclear Reactors by 2030
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: June 19, 2008

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he wanted 45 new nuclear reactors built in the United States by 2030, a course he called "as difficult as it is necessary."

In his third straight day of campaign speechmaking about energy and $4-a-gallon gasoline, Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, told the crowd at a town-hall-style meeting at Missouri State University that he saw nuclear power as a clean, safe alternative to traditional sources of energy that emit greenhouse gases. He said his ultimate goal was 100 new nuclear plants.

Mr. McCain has long promoted nuclear reactors, but Wednesday was the first time that he specified the number of plants he envisioned.

Currently there are 104 reactors in the country supplying some 20 percent of electricity consumed. No new nuclear power plant has been built in the United States since the 1970s.

"China, Russia and India are all planning to build more than a hundred new power plants among them in the coming decades," Mr. McCain said in this pocket of Missouri that is reliably Republican. "Across Europe there are 197 reactors in operation, and nations including France and Belgium derive more than half their electricity from nuclear power. And if all of these nations can find a way to carry out great goals in energy policy, then I assure you that the United States is more than equal to the challenge."

[...]

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mr. McCain's chief domestic policy adviser, said Mr. McCain had arrived at the goal of 45 as consistent with his desire to expand nuclear power, "but not so large as to be infeasible given permitting and construction times."

In recent years, I have been voting for candidates primarily based on what I judge to be reasonable foreign policy (which is pretty much the opposite of President Bush's foreign policy positions). I definitely side with Obama on foreign policy (Senator McCain's foreign policy is identical to that of President Bush). However, Senator McCain just might win me over with his energy policy.

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Deck Framing Started
Today Baxton was able to stand up the posts and hoist the beam into place. He will hang the 2x12 LVL joists tomorrow. He is progressively tapering each joist such that water on the deck will flow to the corners. At the corners will be a drain that will connect to a drain pipe hidden within the post façade. The drain pipe is already stubbed out through the post footing and connects to our existing storm water drainage system. It's sound like it will be a pretty slick system. Baxton has built a ton of these decks... in fact, he said my deck is the fourth one he has built already this year. He said he built about twelve or so last year.

Here is a picture of the column and the posts... with a couple of the joists already hung.

Tomorrow Baxton will take off that small roof over the area where our family room juts out from the rear elevation of the house and hang all of the joists.

Berkeley's Last Day of Kindergarten
Berkeley's last day of kindergarten was today... summer vacation officially has begun. After school, some (other) parents organized a picnic/lunch/party for the class at nearby Beaver Lake park. Most if not all of his classmates were present. I think his class size is about 17 or 18 kids. Many siblings were there as well, including Eliana and Olivia. Since Kristy works on Wednesday, I took the kids myself (I was the only adult male there). Here are some pictures... including one of Berkeley with his teacher, Mrs. Weber:

A note on Olivia's leopard print purse: last week I left the diaper bag down at Laura's place. In its place we decided to have Olivia carry around a spare diaper and small amount of wipes in that little leopard print purse. Laura has since returned the diaper bag (just this past Sunday), but Olivia still wants to carry around the purse.