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GODZILLA II

GODZILLA II  San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Coyote 28 June 09 “………………………………….it is not the production of electricity from nuclear plants which is so carbon intensive, but the building of them. The concrete alone, one of the most carbon-producing products on earth, the heating of water, the heavy equipment……………

……………..the coal and oil industries are buying into power companies. They want to own it all. They know that regulatory difficulties and expense and public fears will do plenty to slow down the nuclear build-up, leaving them plenty of time to sell their product………….

………..Atomic reactors are horrendously expensive. On a level playing field they, cannot possibly compete with even renewables. If they were so safe, why can they not get private liability insurance? The Price-Anderson Act turned their insurance over to the Federal Government (the tax-payer) and limits the sizes of claims that homeowners and citizens can receive. They cannot raise, private funding for new construction or, after a half-century, have they come one iota closer to a solution for their high-level waste problems. No one has figured out how to protect them from terrorist attacks, and in every staged mock raid, the “terrorists” have overwhelmed the nuclear power plant security……………………………..the health impacts of atomic reactors. They emit not only x-rays and gamma rays, but also particulate emissions involving alpha and beta particles. Why is it that after 50 years there is still no systematic monitoring regimen for actually tracking the human beings that live in areas downwind from atomic reactors. San Francisco’s own Dr. John Gofman, the first chief health researcher for the Atomic Energy Commission, concluded in the late 1960s that “normal” emissions from nuclear plants would kill thousands of Americans yearly, with no catastrophe required. “

City Brights: Peter Coyote : GODZILLA II

June 26, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, radioactive