Ready to go nuclear?
Share your Thoughts
Posted on March 18, 2006
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters
Today from Margaret Swedish:
As the dawning of our energy crisis and the threat and reality of global warming begin to reach the level of our daily consciousness, many people are scrambling for any cleaner source of electricity to power our homes, computers, offices, etc. Coal will not be the answer because of the devastating impact of coalmining and processing on the environment (more on this later).
Now some folks want to go nuclear because it is a much cleaner and cheaper power source. However, the dangers of radioactivity, coupled with a history of serious accidents at nuclear power plants that have contaminated air and water (Three Mile Island comes to mind, along with Chernobyl), have made people fearful, cautious, and often opposed to having nuclear power plants nearby.
There has not been a new plant built in the US in decades. Now energy companies and the Bush administration would like to change all that. But before we go down that road, let’s look at the dangers. You can start by reading the linked article from yesterday’s New York Times, “Nuclear Reactors Found to be Leaking Radioactive Water.”
A little snippet: “Near Braceville, Ill., the Braidwood Generating Station, owned by the Exelon Corporation, has leaked tritium into underground water that has shown up in the well of a family nearby. The company, which has bought out one property owner and is negotiating with others, has offered to help pay for a municipal water system for houses near the plant that have private wells.
“In a survey of all 10 of its nuclear plants, Exelon found tritium in the ground at two others. On Tuesday, it said it had had another spill at Braidwood, about 60 miles south of Chicago, and on Thursday, the attorney general of Illinois announced she was filing a lawsuit against the company over that leak and five earlier ones, dating to 1996.”
Don’t want radioactive water coming out of my taps, don’t want it in the hose with which I water my gardens, don’t wan’t it in my rivers and lakes where folks fish, etc. Do you?
Comments
Leave a Reply
