The following solve4biggies.com entries and comments detail why nuclear power in the United States is a non-starter going forward.
What about nuclear power? - 4/28/2007
According to 39 Senators, "renewable" includes nuclear - 6/17/2007
It's time to stop the madness (see comments) - 9/16/07
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Here are
eight more reasons:
1)
1999 -
Fatal nuclear accident in Japan. "Two workers died from massive radiation exposure and 600 people were exposed to smaller doses of radiation."
2003 - a Japanese court "handed out suspended prison terms to six officials of a nuclear processing plant after they were found guilty of negligence in the country's worst nuclear accident."
This is what can happen when we try to cut butter (boil water) with a chain saw (nuclear energy).
2)
2002 - "Japan's nuclear power industry suffered another blow.... after Tokyo Electric Power, the nation's biggest utility, said its employees
falsified nuclear safety records to hide problems."
Why falsify when you can just withhold? (see # 4 below - U.S.)
3)
$66 billion+ in subsidies!! - Per
Taxpayers for Common Sense (a self-proclaimed non-partisan budget watchdog):
"There is a long tradition of providing massive subsidies for nuclear power in the U.S. Between 1948 and 1998, more than $66 billion was spent on nuclear energy research and subsidies. Unable to produce nuclear power at a profit by themselves, plant operators have resorted to intensively lobbying members of Congress to preserve unjustified subsidies for the normal costs of doing business. Private investors stay away from nuclear power because production of nuclear-fired electricity costs at least four times as much as other conventional energy sources. Where private investors recognize a bad deal, the federal government continues to recklessly spend taxpayer dollars."
Given the HUGE subsidies given to the nuclear power industry why aren't waste reprocessing and long-term storage handled??
4)
May 2007 - The nuclear industry is
withholding information on significant accidents. "....a nuclear chain-reaction accident nearly occurred 14 months ago at a nuclear fuels processing plant in Tennessee. The incident might never have been disclosed publicly if not for laws requiring the NRC to annually report 'abnormal occurrences' of its license-holders to Congress."
5)
June 2007 - Yucca Mountain Johnny
or NO Yucca Mountain Johnny?? - This shows how far we are from long-term nuclear waste storage. How can we even be THINKING of more nuclear plants?
6)
July 2007 -
Japan debates safety after quake (July 17th); then,
Japan quake-hit plant may be shut a year or more (July 18th). Some excerpts:
- "Building a reasonably quake-resistant plant is way too costly to be truly realistic," says Hiroyuki
Nagasawa, a management-systems professor at Osaka Prefecture University. "Nothing short of reevaluating our energy policy will change the current situation, but we have much bigger political powers working to keep the plants running." The country has been spared a quake-related nuclear calamity so far. Citizens can only hope their luck holds.
- ....the government might order TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) to keep the plant shut for more than a year while a safety study is conducted, raising questions about possible power cuts and the hefty cost to TEPCO of firing up other mothballed power stations to meet heavy summer demand.
- TEPCO first said there had been no radiation leaks from the quake, which caused a small fire, but later revealed that 1,200 liters (317 U.S. gallons) of radioactive water had leaked into the ocean. On Tuesday, it said there had been about 50 problems including a minor radiation leak into the atmosphere. Then on Wednesday, the utility revised up the amount of radiation in the leaked water, but added that the amounts were still too small to harm people or the environment.
7)
Nuclear Power Plant accidents (20 listed) and
Processing, Storage, Shipping & Disposal accidents (26 listed) in the United States.
8) The possible proliferation of nuclear material from power plants, reprocessing facilities, transportation vehicles, or storage sites. Here's an example:
Storage of Nuclear Spent Fuel Criticized======================================
At the federal level, let's start a phased-in shift of taxes from income to a BTU tax on non-renewable energy. This will solve the 4 biggies while beginning the process of aligning what we pay for nuclear energy with its actual costs.
