"They wrote us off. They keep trying to write off our ailing truths with their sanctimonious lies. But nothing will silence us! Even after death, from our graves we will appeal to your conscience not to transform the Earth into a sarcophagus!"--Lyubov Sirota, Chernobyl’s disaster victim.

I have leaned in the course of my life that a discussion on any issue, void of dialogue, is a futile exercise. When parties of a discussion don’t learn from each other they fall into the so called trap "I say, s/he says." I have read the article "Nuclear energy unsafe alternative to fossil fuels"[1] in which the author, Paul Hantley, expresses his concerns on the cleanliness, safety, and economics of nuclear power. I have also read the rebuttal of Hantley’s assertions as recently expressed by Kent Smith-Windsor, director of the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce.[2]

As an understanding person, I just want to carry on a peaceful life. It is with this peaceful understanding of life that I find Hantley’s concerns on nuclear power more credible than Smith-Windsor’s marketing jargon.

Smith-Windsor indirectly accuses Hantley of saying irrational half truths and of fear mongering. Hantley says that nuclear power is not safe and it is not clean and it is publicly subsidized. Smith-Windsor parrots the Bush administration’s assertion that nuclear power is safe, clean and economical.[3]

Nuclear power is not safe and in this regard we may refer to the nuclear plant disaster at Chernobyl,[4] the meltdown at Three Mile Islands,[5] the casual finding of the corrosion of a six-inch steel cap covering the reactor at Davis Besses plant,[6] and to a long list of other nuclear disasters.[7]

Is it irrational to consider the use of nuclear material as terrorist weapons? Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has warned that

"the control of technology is not, in itself, a sufficient barrier against further [nuclear] proliferation."[8]

Nuclear power is not clean, the truth is that carbon dioxide (CO2) is emitted at each step of the nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining, milling, enrichment, fuel fabrication, construction of the reactor, transportation and storage of radioactive waste, and decommissioning of old reactors. At each step of the nuclear fuel chain, we have the producing of radioactive material that contaminate ground water, air, plants, equipment for a duration of hundreds of thousands of years.[9]

In the United States, nuclear plants are being deregulated to last longer than they were designed for,[10] and their monumental accidental risk is being covered by no fault insurance.[11] I wonder if the current selling of nuclear power in North America, and in this province of Saskatchewan, is motivated by business entrepreneurship, or by governmental policies reflecting the corporative take over of our governments. Nuclear power is not cheap either, and in fact the Public Citizen states that "throwing more tax dollars at nuclear power will not make it safer, cleaner, or more economical."[12]

References

1. Hantley, Paul Nuclear energy unsafe alternative to fossil fuels November 30, 2004 The StarPhoenix

2. Smith-Windsor, Kent Industry debased by fear mongering December 7, 2004 The StarPhoenix

3. Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Environmental Advocates (NIRS) Environmentalists oppose Bush-Cheney plan to revitalize nuclear power industry http://www.n-base.org.uk/public/report_links/oppose_bush.html

4. Virtual Guide to Belarus Facts About Chernobyl Disaster. Links to information on Chernobyl disaster http://www.belarusguide.com/chernobyl1/chfacts.htm

5. BS Three Mile Island: What Happened http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/sfeature/

6. Union of Concerned Scientists Davis-Besse: The Reactor with a Hole in its Head http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/nuclear_safety/page.cfm?pageID=790

7. Wikipedia List of nuclear accidents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_accidents

8. Boyd, Alan Asia's ticking nuclear time-bomb November 16, 2004 Asia Times http://www.nuclearpolicy.org/NewsArticle.cfm?NewsID=1962

9. Lai, Leslie and Kristen Morrison NUCLEAR ENERGY FACT SHEET Waging Peace http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/issues/nuclear-energy-&-waste/start/fact-sheet_ne&w.htm

10. Grossman, Karl The Nuclear Phoenix: The Bush Administration is Pushing Ahead with a Full-Scale Revival of Atomic Power E MAGAZINE.COM http://www.emagazine.com/view/?901

11. Green Scissors Nuclear Bailout Price-Anderson Act: $n/a (pdf) http://www.citizen.org/documents/nuke2010analysis.pdf

12. Public Citizen Nuclear Power 2010 Unveiled: Bush plan for new nuclear reactors maps out monstrous subsidies (pdf) March 2004 http://www.citizen.org/documents/nuke2010analysis.pdf