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USA grassroots anti-nuclear movement against massive spending by nuclear lobby

it is now clearer than ever that atomic energy cannot compete, that new construction means new rate hikes, that delays and cost overruns will always outstrip the industry’s initial public assurances,

Is the “Nuclear Renaissance” Dead Yet?, HUFFINGTON POST, Harvey Wasserman: 13 Sept 2010, “…..According to official records, the nuclear industry has spent at least $645 million in the past decade lobbying for taxpayer handouts. It got $18.5 billion in loan guarantees from the Bush Administration in 2005. Obama has asked for some $36 billion more. But so far a national grassroots movement has kept that from happening. The industry is demanding more from Congress, and will continue to do so as long as legislators need cash to run their campaigns.

But it is now clearer than ever that atomic energy cannot compete, that new construction means new rate hikes, that delays and cost overruns will always outstrip the industry’s initial public assurances, and that after a half-century this technology still can’t face the prospect of full liability for the disasters it might impose … or even for the “minor” radiation it constantly emits.

Will this finally kill the much hyped “renaissance” of a Dark Age technology defined by quadruple failures in human health, global ecology, sound finance and increasingly shaky performance?

That will depend on the power of citizen activism. Nuclear power can’t survive without protection from accident liability. Nor can new plants be built without huge public subsidies.

The longer those are stopped, the more likely a Solartopian transition to the only sources that can sustain us: increased efficiency and the green-powered birth of the Age of Renewables.

Harvey Wasserman: Is the “Nuclear Renaissance” Dead Yet?

September 14, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, reactors, uranium