[Hidden-tech] Nuke Power & Energy Providers?

[Shel Horowitz]

>  > WMECO 33% Nuclear, 39% Gas, 14% coal, 8% oil, 6% other
>>  Dominion 64% Nuclear, 18% Gas, 8% Coal, 2% oil, 3% hydro, 5% other

Unfortunately, if we stay on the grid, we don't really have a 
nuke-free alternative. Mass Electric (serves Noho) also has some 
nuclear in its mix, if I'm not mistaken. You can, however, lower your 
dependence on nuclear by adding a solar system. On our 1743 
farmhouse, we have a solar hot water system, which is not only 
excellent but lowers our electric bill by over $100 per month--and a 
small photovoltaic system, which produces less than I'd hoped (I 
think it was installed too lo on the roof) but does sell back about 
10% of our purchased electricity (and I imagine saves us at least 
that much in electricity that we consume directly)

>  >
>>  Basically I think Dominion owns one or more nuclear power plants in
>>  the northeast, which are cheaper to operate than fossil-fuel
>>  plants. But there is that persistent problem of what to do with
>>  nuclear waste.  Nobody wants it, and it lasts ~ 10,000 years.
>
>Good catch, but it leaves out a couple of things that folks should
>consider. I speak from some knowledge of the nuke industry, having
>worked with alongside those folks (both in those in military and the
>private sector) for a couple of decades. I produced a documentary
>about the issues of "safe" nuke power and heard so many lies from
>their defenders and heard so many horror stories from not only those
>folks but hard core scientists, that I can't enumerate them in this e-
>mail. Suffice it to say, they included the facts about the half-life
>of waste (actually up to a quarter million years for a couple
>isotopes, Jeremy), the politicization of the industry, simple things
>like wrenches getting accidently dropped in waste pools and discarded
>there, technicians selling drugs in the plants, etc.

I also have some knowledge of this industry, starting with reading 
every lay book on the subject for a college paper I wrote in 1974 
(and to which I came to the subject with an open mind, and got 
scared--very scared), to writing a column on the problems of nuclear 
power in 1978-79, to writing my first book on that subject in the 
aftermath of Three Mile Island.

Basically there is *no* good reason to go nuclear. As far as reasons 
to avoid it, these are some of them:
* Taking the entire fuel cycle, from mining through milling, 
transportation, assembly into fuel rods, powering the nuke, and 
temporarily dealing with the waste, nuclear power actually *consumes 
more power than it generates*--talk about a bad trade-off!
* Steven is correct--nuclear waste has to be sealed off from the 
environment for about 250,000 years. Typically, you can multiply the 
half-life of any radioactive isotope by ten in order to get an 
approximation of when it will be safe to treat as non-half the 
radiation to emit and neutralize. So if you have a pound of 
radioactive material, at the end of its half-life, you'll still have 
half a pound of radioactive and half a pound of inert. After the next 
half-life you still have a quarter-pound, but after ten cycles, 
nearly all of it is inert (you never reach zero, of course). Nukes 
generate a whole stew of radioactive materials; one of the deadliest, 
plutonium 239, has a half-life of 24,100 years--thus, the figure of a 
quarter million years of isolation. This is one of the most 
carcinogenic substances we now about, deadly to humans in doses 
measured with an eyedropper--and every nuke generates significant 
amounts. The handful of reactors operating in the US currently add 
2000 *tons* of the stuff every year, and all you need is 20 pounds to 
make an h bomb (we won't talk about other destructive uses that 
require far less). [source: 
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/nuclear_terrorism/extracting-plutonium-from-nuclear-reactor-spent-fuel.html]
* The only reason there is a commercial nuclear power program in this 
country as that the government, back in the 50s, not only announced 
that if private utilities wouldn't step up, it would set up its own 
competing power plant system--and coupled that with an incredible 
giveaway called the Price-Anderson Act--which established heavily 
subsidized insurance policies with sharply limited liability. 
Basically, the only ones likely to collect anything in the event of a 
catastrophic accident are the owners of the plant, and even they 
won't recoup their investment.
* Then you have a whole raft of safety issues including clumsy 
low-level accidents like the dropped wrenches, on up to catastrophic 
failure through accident or terrorism or earthquake

There's more, lots more--but I'll stop there.

>I'm no promoter of nuke power, but I have been thinking things over
>of late. What about global warming? What if nuke power is our short-
>cut to getting to a hydrogen/solar economy and getting off oil? I
>won't tell you what to think; as I've said, I haven't made up my own
>mind. Just think about it and learn. Maybe take the sources (except
>true renewables) off your ledgers in deciding where you find a
>provider for the next couple of years.

Here are some facts that might help make up your and others' minds:

* More energy from the sun falls uncaptured on the earth than is 
consumed by all human activity
* Rooftops are a largely untapped source of energy. Think about all 
the flat-roof buildings in New York City--with a quarter of their 
area devoted to solar collectors and another quarter for rooftop 
gardens: a big step toward both food (thus drastically lowering the 
need for petroleum input) and energy self-sufficiency
* We could redesign many of our industrial and commercial processes 
to use a whole lot less energy. See for example my article about 
visionary scientist Amory Lovins and the work he's done to change 
industrial energy patterns: 
http://www.frugalmarketing.com/dtb/amorylovins.shtml

In other words, we can do everything we need with conservation 
solar, wind, small-scale hydro, geothermal--especially if we change 
our use patterns (for example, buying more locally grown food)
-- 
_________________________________________________
Shel Horowitz - 413-586-2388/800-683-WORD shel at frugalfun.com

I show the world the value in your values!
Award-wining author,
Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First
Founder of the Business Ethics Pledge, http://www.business-ethics-pledge.org
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