The latest word is that the Navy intends to homeport a number of the latest class of nuclear submarines at Pearl Harbor. Military reporter William Cole has the story HERE.

That's good news for the economy, workers at Pearl Harbor Shipyard and and for folks who sell things to the submariners and their families. Part of the work of the Shipyard will be involved with nuclear reactor "refueling and defuelings," according to Cole.

This raises an interesting question as the state moves toward an energy future that is less dependent on oil. Today, the state constitution forbids the use of nuclear power without extraordinary approval by the Legislature (section 8). Might this change the argument?

After all, we are already putting nuclear fuel in and taking nuclear fuel out within the borders of our state. Should this option be reserved for the military alone?

A thought, at any rate.

Tags: constitution, energy, nuclear, submarines

This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 1:45 pm and is filed under 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.