Nuclear – Not The Silver Bullet

Nuclear power is the only energy technology where the waste is so dangerous that the government has to assume responsibility for its disposal and where governments  assume the liability for catastrophic accidents. This came about in part from insurance companies, Reactor manufacturers and Operators claiming that if a major catastrophe occurred they would not have the funds to cover the costs. If that is true the true cost of Nuclear is not clear at all. There are also stipulations that require governments, through national and international anti-proliferation systems, to attempt to prevent countries from making nuclear weapons using civilian nuclear fuel-cycle facilities and materials.

Nuclear power proponents deny the likelihood that the 1986 Chernobyl disaster has killed thousands and will kill thousands more. Nuclear power plant development in the United States came to a virtual standstill in the 1980s as a result of an economy bolstered by inexpensive fossil fuels and a citizenry reeling from news of nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. They are considered by some as a great aid to several major cities, mainly because the energy provided is much bigger than the waste produced. Of course, this waste is incredibly dangerous: the thing, is knowing how to dispose them properly. Nuclear power is the one and only energy source with a direct and repeatedly-demonstrated connection to the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. They are the ultimate soft target for terrorist attacks.  How do you monetize the cost of safety over 10,000 years? which is the time needed for most of the nuclear waste produced in the Light Water Reactors most common today to decay to safe levels. Nobody can say with any hint of certainty what could happen to this killer waste that far into the future   There is no imaginable cost-benefit scenario that makes a potential runaway disaster acceptable.

Nuclear power currently generates 17 per cent of the world’s electricity. However it is irrelevant to the needs of the people in a great majority of countries of the world, since nuclear power plants are too large and too expensive to fit into their electricity grids. Nuclear power emits three times more greenhouse gases than wind power according to the 2006 Switkowski report. Solar power which presently only accounts for about .05 % of the worlds power needs, (1% and more in some European countries ) could be vastly increased if everyone practicable had a bank of solar panels on their home, factory or office. U.S. Energy services company PSEG will install 200,000 solar panels on utility poles throughout the state of New Jersey in six large cities and 300 rural and suburban communities. The panels will generate electricity that will go directly into the grid. It is estimated they will generate about 80 megawatts of electricity. Even Photovoltaic Roof tiles are available at present as well as a variety of solar panels.

Home made energy manuals are available to download giving step by step instructions on the parts to buy and how to build and fit your own Wind Power Solar Power installation at home for a fraction of the cost to have them installed and the more wind power and solar power equipment that is sold the cheaper and better it will become.   Nuclear power will never be safe, the recent earthquake, tsunami and subsequent Nuclear disaster at the Japanese Fukashima  nuclear plant is testament to this. There are already too many accidents attributed to Nuclear Power.