Don't be surprised if you cross paths with Mr. Burns this week.
Proponents of nuclear power have gathered in Chicago for the Nuclear Energy Institute's annual conference, a showcase of how nuclear technology can purportedly solve our climate woes:
"No matter who is elected president in November, it seems clear that climate change will dominate the national debate over energy and environmental policy in 2009 and beyond," said NEI President and Chief Executive Officer Frank L. (Skip) Bowman. "Whether you believe the scientific evidence justifies mandatory controls on carbon or not, there is one fact on which we can all agree: There is no credible strategy to address the conundrum of climate change and increasing electricity demand unless nuclear power is part of the portfolio."
David Kraft, director of the Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service, begs to differ. Speaking to Chicago Public Radio's Mike Rhee, Kraft says nuclear power is neither safe nor sustainable:
There's the nuclear waste issue, they have no place to put high-level radioactive waste that's environmentally responsible. There's the nuclear proliferation issue, everywhere that commercial nuclear power has gone on the planet, nuclear weapons eventually follow.
(More after the jump ...)
In his comprehensive cover story for The Nation last week, Christian Parenti echoes Kraft's concerns, highlighting that the "nuclear renaissance" celebrated by the Bush Administration is nothing more than a slick "greenwashing" campaign. Devised by the Nuclear Energy Institute itself, it relies on ghostwritten op-eds and a hollow advocacy group -- one tagged with a grassroots-sounding name, but run by corporate shills. The effects of the PR push, Parenti concludes, are disastrous:
This much seems clear: a handful of firms might soak up huge federal subsidies and build one or two overpriced plants. While a new administration might tighten regulations, public safety will continue to be menaced by problems at new as well as older plants. But there will be no massive nuclear renaissance. Talk of such a renaissance, however, helps keep people distracted, their minds off the real project of developing wind, solar, geothermal and tidal kinetics to build a green power grid.
Post new comment