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Nuclear Power: Low Cost, Small Carbon Footprint, Huge Risks

Nuclear Power: Low Cost, Small Carbon Footprint, Huge Risks OPB News
 BY KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL Hanford, WA May 18, 2009 6: – “………………..

But, as most everyone knows, nuclear has problems.

Because of the risks, Wall Street won’t fund it without federal loan guarantees; human errors can be disastrous; and it produces a stream of long-lived and dangerous radioactive waste.

The Trojan plant for example was built by Portland General Electric in the 1970’s and shut down less than 20 years later.

The reactor was shipped off to Hanford and buried; the cooling tower demolished in a widely publicized explosion.  All that remains is a large gravel lot…………………………………….recycling doesn’t make nuclear renewable — there’s still a dangerous waste stream and the process also produces weapons grade plutonium — an attractive target for terrorists………………………..Chuck Johnson: “We know that burning hydrocarbons is causing global warming, that doesn’t therefore logically lead us to do something else that has long-term negative consequences. Like develop nuclear energy that has radioactive waste that lasts 10s of thousands of years. I think future generations will wonder, what was so important about generating electricity back in the 20th and 21st century that we now have to deal with these wastes that these people generated 10-thousand years ago.”

OPB News · Nuclear Power: Low Cost, Small Carbon Footprint, Huge Risks

May 19, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized