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Time for USA to join the trend and ditch nuclear energy

Rory O’Connor is the author of Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima, and most, recently, Friends, Followers and the Future: How Social Media are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional Media.   

Breaking up the nuclear family, Aljazeera, Rory O’Connor It’s time for the world’s largest economy – the US – to learn from Japan and Germany, and ditch nuclear power. 13 Jun 2012 New York, NY – In the wake of last year’s devastating nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima, both Japan and Germany – the third and fourth largest economies in the world – have radically turned away from nuclear power generation to meet their energy needs…..

Unsafe and unnecessary Other European states, some with smaller but still sizable economies (including Italy, Belgium and Austria) have also pledged either to eliminate nuclear power entirely or at least to stop building new nuclear plants. Before Fukushima,  advanced industrialised nations were thought to be able to safely generate electricity through nuclear power; post-Fukushima, that assurance melted down along with the reactors. Before Fukushima, it was widely believed that nuclear power generation was necessary to maintain an advanced society and way of life; post-Fukushima, we see that the total elimination of nuclear plants is not only possible but highly desirable.
It’s time for the world’s largest economy – that of the United States – to learn from the Japanese and Germans and to emulate them by ditching nuclear power once and for all. Experience now shows that nuclear power generation is both unsafe and unnecessary – not to mention the disturbing fact that no one has yet come up with a solution to the ongoing dilemma of what to do with the thousands of tons of long-lasting, highly radioactive “spent fuel” – aka nuclear waste – still piled up at reactors all over the world, including of course, at the still volatile Fukushima site.

Although Prime Minister Noda recently went on national television to tell citizens there, “Japanese society cannot function if we stop or try to do without nuclear power generation,” the reality is that both Japan and Germany’s societies are still functioning well in its absence. The United States could – and should – follow suit and begin to phase out its dangerous and unnecessary reliance on nuclear power. It’s time for President Obama to turn away at long last from his silly but persistent pipe dream of a “nuclear renaissance” in the United States and begin to move instead to a “No Nukes” future of clean, safe and renewable energy.

Rory O’Connor is the author of Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima, and most, recently, Friends, Followers and the Future: How Social Media are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional Media.   http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/06/2012612103055289384.html

June 14, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general