Look, I’m an environmentalist. I recycle. I own a SULEV car, I carpool, I ride the bus. I grow my own vegetables, I keep a small lawn (and will be xeriscaping soon). I strongly support alternative fuel sources. I oppose strip-mining, clearcutting, and uncontrolled grazing. I love my country and my planet, and I want to leave a better place for my children. I’m not a nut–I don’t want people to live in caves (as a coworker immediately assumed yesterday when I dropped the dreaded “e” word on him). But I do think that we humans have the means to nurture and protect our environment without sacrificing civilization or scientific progress.
So why am I considered an asshole for supporting nuclear power?
I simply do not understand the opposition among environmentalists to nuclear power plants. They provide extremely cheap power in huge quantities, with no air or water pollution. The arguments seem specious at best, blindingly deceptive at worst. Little help here?
Here are the arguments against nuke plants that I’ve heard:
- Nuke plants are dangerous. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are most often cited for this. But Chernobyl was built by the Soviets, who consistently made “lowest bidder” sound like gold. And while TMI was a disaster, it posed no threat to populace and we’ve learned from it. There may be cockups in the future, but nothing like TMI is ever going to happen again.
And, of course, nuclear plants cannot blow up. They aren’t Hiroshimas waiting to happen.
- We don’t know what to do with the waste. Well, no shit. But reprocessing makes a HUGE difference, up to 97% recovery. Glassification technology has developed to the point that high-level waste poses no threat to people or the environment. Sure, it’s still going to hang around for ages, but so are copper mine pits–and with full-scale fuel reprocessing there would be a helluva lot less to dump into WIPP.
Further, we don’t know how to recover salmon runs on the Snake river. We don’t know how to remove toxins from our air and water. But we’re trying. Just because we don’t know now does NOT mean we’re fucked for all time.
2a) Reprocessing is dangerous. The Japanese sodium fire was caused by a number of factors, all of them based in human error. There have been some health concerns, most notably a possible increase in childhood leukemia, around breeder reactors. I have a young child–I’m not about to downplay that. But we need to confirm or deny it–and then we can fix it, by god.
Yes, fast breeder reactors are fucking dangerous. Unlike other plants, these could conceivably explode. But we can overcome that–the technology and safety standards are in place. We aren’t banging sticks together and praying for lightning anymore, dammit. As our fires have become bigger, so have our safety precautions.
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Poisonous and radioactive nuclear waste products will last essentially forever. Maybe, maybe not. Pop cans don’t have to around forever, nor rubber tyres. But even if we assume no use will ever be found for rad waste, and no way will ever be found to make it harmless, why should that stop us? People dying of asthma and emphysema during the winter in Denver, Salt Lake City, and Albuquerque will be dead forever. So will those who die in Houston, San Antonio, and LA during the summer. We have time to throw resources at nuke waste.
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Nuke plants are expensive. This is less of a concern at the moment, as natural gas, coal, and oil prices continue to rise. But it would be a valid concern if not for the fact that people seem to omit a part. Nuke plants are expensive to build. They’re gawdawful cheap to maintain, and they pay for themselves quickly. And we know for a fact that fossil fuels are not infinite. Prices will only go up.
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Nuke plants are terrorist targets. Possibly–for very stupid terroroists. Security at plants is very tight. A large group of psychos could possibly make a plant melt down, but they couldn’t make one explode. The only real risk is theft of fuel, and that’s difficult enough without security (fuel rods weigh a helluva lot).
So, based on the above, I don’t get it. Help me out here, Teeming Millions. What am I missing?