nuclear-news

President Obama misinformed about France and Japan’s nukes

Beyond Nuclear 23 Oct 09 President Obama is either misinformed or uninformed if he believes that France and Japan have operated their nuclear power programs safely and effectively.

Due to its dependency on nuclear power, France has an immense and unsolved nuclear waste problem including 81 + tonnes of plutonium sitting in canisters – enough for 10,000 bombs. Leukemia clusters have been found along the coast near the huge reprocessing plant and radioactively contaminated sites litter the country due to the 210 now abandoned uranium mines.

Japan has suffered a series of tragic accidents at nuclear facilities in the past two decades including an accidental criticality at the Tokai-Mura uranium enrichment facility that killed two workers and exposed many hundreds of local residents and an earthquake that released radioactivity into the ocean from the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s largest with seven reactors.

If Obama is serious about addressing climate change he must get off the nuclear bandwagon and make a real commitment to meaningful progress on renewable energy.

October 23, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive