|
Comment by Larry Ross, January 11, 2007
But it does not mention a very important security reason: that nuclear power reactors can turn into targets in future wars. An attack on them by terrorists or some other enemy, can pollute large areas of land for generations to come, making it uninhabitable and useless for growing crops. With the large dislocation of people from the contaminated area, there would also be many immediate and longer term casualties from nuclear radiation. So there would be no point in providing potential targets to possible future enemies, when alternative sources of energy would be cheaper and safer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IS IT ALL OVER FOR NUCLEAR POWER?By Michael Brooks, New Scientist, April 26, 2006 According to projections by the International Energy Agency and a handful of energy industry experts, 2005 was the first year nuclear power's electricity output dropped behind that of small-scale plants producing low or no carbon dioxide emissions - and that's not counting large hydroelectric projects on the low-carbon side of the balance sheet. Adam Twine doesn't look like the kind of person the nuclear industry should be scared of. An organic farmer, Twine is skinny, with big round glasses and unruly hair that makes his head look like it's fraying at the edges. How could he possibly be a threat to a multibillion-dollar industry? Maybe he wouldn't be if he were operating alone, but Twine is far from alone and has serious money behind him. He has just managed to persuade 2127 people to send him a total of more than u4 million that he will use to set up a co-operative wind farm on land he owns in the south of England. In fact, the idea of owning a share in the Westmill wind farm in Oxfordshire has proved so popular that the project is having to return some of the cash: it only needed u3.7 million [$6.9 million dollars]. The plan now is to give priority in ownership to people living within 80 kilometres of the site, and asking others to accept a smaller stake in the co-op. Though the wind farm is small - five turbines in a vast, bleak field, amounting to 6.5 megawatts of electricity [500 megawatts would power a small city of say 125,000 homes] - it represents another nail in the coffin of nuclear power, one of many being hammered in all over the world. If the nuclear industry wanted to convince governments to start building another generation of nuclear reactors as soon as possible, it needed to bury the likes of Twine before their schemes took off. Now it may be too late. According to projections by the International Energy ... |
