[E-rundbrief] Info 896 - Nuclear power USA

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 896 - Ralph Nader (USA): No Nukes. (Protests against 
new nuclear power plants and the financial support by president Obama 
and government.)

Bad Ischl, 18.2.2010

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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No Nukes

by Ralph Nader

Published on Saturday, February 13, 2010 by www.CommonDreams.org

A generation of Americans has grown up without a single nuclear power 
plant being brought on line since before the near meltdown of the Three 
Mile Island structure in 1979. They have not been exposed to the 
enormous costs, risks and national security dangers associated with 
their operations and the large amount of radioactive wastes still 
without a safe, permanent storage place for tens of thousands of years.

All Americans better get informed soon, for a resurgent atomic power 
lobby wants the taxpayers to pick up the tab for relaunching this 
industry. Unless you get Congress to stop this insanely dirty and 
complex way to boil water to generate steam for electricity, you'll be 
paying for the industry's research, the industry's loan guarantees and 
the estimated trillion dollars (inflation-adjusted) cost of just one 
meltdown, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, plus vast 
immediate and long-range casualties.

The Russian roulette-playing nuclear industry claims a class nine 
meltdown will never happen. That none of the thousands of rail cars, 
trucks and barges with radioactive wastes will ever have a catastrophic 
accident. That terrorists will forgo striking a nuclear plant or 
hijacking deadly materials, and go for far less consequential disasters.

The worst nuclear reactor accident occurred in 1986 at Chernobyl in what 
is now Ukraine. Although of a different design than most U.S. reactors, 
the resultant breach of containment released a radioactive cloud that 
spread around the globe but concentrated most intensively in Belarus, 
Ukraine and European Russia and secondarily over 40% of Europe.

For different reasons, both governmental and commercial interests were 
intent on downplaying both the immediate radioactively-caused deaths and 
diseases and the longer term devastations from this silent, invisible 
form of violence. They also were not eager to fund follow up monitoring 
and research.

Now comes the English translation of the most comprehensive, scientific 
report to date titled Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for 
People and the Environment whose senior author is biologist Alexey V. 
Yablokov, a member of the prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences.

Purchasable from the New York Academy of Sciences (visit 
nyas.org/annals), this densely referenced analysis covers the acute 
radiation inflicted on both the first-responders (called "liquidators") 
and on residents nearby, who suffer chronic radioactive sicknesses. 
"Today," asserts the report, "more than 6 million people live on land 
with dangerous levels of contamination--land that will continue to be 
contaminated for decades to centuries."

Back to the U.S., where, deplorably, President Obama has called for more 
so-called "safe, clean nuclear power plants." He just sent a budget 
request for another $54 billion in taxpayer loan guarantees on top of a 
previous $18 billion passed under Bush. You see, Wall Street financiers 
will not loan electric companies money to build new nuclear plants which 
cost $12 billion and up, unless Uncle Sam guarantees one hundred percent 
of the loan.

Strange, if these nuclear power plants are so efficient, so safe, why 
can't they be built with unguaranteed private risk capital? The answer 
to this question came from testimony by Amory B. Lovins, chief scientist 
of the Rocky Mountain Institute, in March 2008 before the [House of 
Representatives of the U.S.] Select Committee on Energy Independence 
(rmi.org). His thesis: "expanding nuclear power would reduce and retard 
climate protection and energy security...but can't survive free-market 
capitalism."

Making his case with brilliant concision, Lovins, a consultant to 
business and the Defense Department, demonstrated with numbers and other 
data that nuclear power "is being dramatically outcompeted in the global 
marketplace by no and low-carbon power resources that deliver far more 
climate solution per dollar, far faster."

Lovins doesn't even include the accident or sabotage risks. He testified 
that "because it's [nuclear power] uneconomic and unnecessary, we 
needn't inquire into its other attributes." Renewable energy (eg. wind 
power), cogeneration and energy efficiencies (megawatts) are now far 
superior to maintain.

I challenge anybody in the nuclear industry or academia to debate Lovins 
at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., with a neutral 
moderator, or before a Congressional Committee.

However, the swarm of nuclear power lobbyists is gaining headway in 
Congress, spreading their money everywhere and falsely exploiting the 
concern with global warming fed by fossil fuels.

The powerful nuclear power critics in Congress want the House energy 
bill to focus on climate change. To diminish the opposition, they 
entered into a bargain that gave nuclear reactors status with loan 
guarantees and other subsidies in the same legislation which has passed 
the House and, as is usual, languishing in the Senate.

Long-time, staunch opponents of atomic power who are leaders in 
countering climate change, such as Cong. Ed Markey (D-MA), have quieted 
themselves for the time being, while the Republicans (loving the 
taxpayer subsidies) and some Democrats are hollering for the nukes. All 
this undermines the valiant efforts of the Union of Concerned 
Scientists, NIRS, Friends of the Earth, and other established citizen 
groups who favor a far safer, more efficient, faster and more secure 
energy future for our country and the world.

Just recently, a well-designed and documented pamphlet from Beyond 
Nuclear summarize the case against nuclear power as "Expensive, 
Dangerous and Dirty." The clear, precise detail and documentation makes 
for expeditious education of your friends, neighbors and co-workers.

You can download it free and reprint it for wider distribution from 
www.BeyondNuclear.org. It is very well worth the 10 to 15 minutes it 
takes to absorb the truth about this troubled technology--replete with 
delays and large cost-overruns--that has been on government welfare 
since the 1950s.

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His most recent 
book - and first novel -  is, Only The Super Wealthy Can Save Us. His 
most recent work of non-fiction is The Seventeen Traditions.


-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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