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Brian Gaff Brian Gaff is offline
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Default The false promise of nuclear power in an age of climate change

Yes we have also all got to stop farting and stop our animals farting as
well.
Brian

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David P wrote

The false promise of nuclear power in an age of climate change
By Robert Jay Lifton, Naomi Oreskes, Aug 20, 2019, the Bulletin


Commentators from Greenpeace to the World Bank agree that climate
change is an emergency, threatening civilization and life on our planet.


Mindlessly silly.

Any solution must involve the control of greenhouse gas emissions
by phasing out fossil fuels and switching to alternative technologies
that do not impair the human habitat while providing the energy
we require to function as a species.


Even sillier. The other obvious approach is to deal
with climate change if it does actually happen.

This sobering reality has led some prominent
observers to re-embrace nuclear energy.


Because that is the obvious and only viable way to have any
real effect on the amount of CO2 we add to the atmosphere.

Advocates declare it clean, efficient, economical, and safe.


And that is because that is precisely what it is.

In actuality it is none of these.


BULL****. It is in fact all of those.

It is expensive


So are all the alternatives.

and poses grave dangers to our physical and psychological well-being.


BULL****.

According to the US Energy Information Agency, the average
nuclear power generating cost is about $100 per megawatt-
hour. Compare this with $50 per megawatt-hour for solar
and $30 to $40 per megawatt-hour for onshore wind.


Those are utterly bogus numbers when you consider
the real cost of providing power when the wind isnt
blowing enough and at night with solar.

The financial group Lazard recently said that renewable
energy costs are now "at or below the marginal cost of
conventional generation"-that is, fossil fuels-


That's a lie when you consider the real cost
of providing power when the wind isnt
blowing enough and at night with solar.

and much lower than nuclear.


Another bare faced lie.

In theory these high costs and long construction times could be brought
down.


And in practice China shows that they are doing just that.

But we have had more than a half-century to test that
theory and it appears have been solidly refuted.


Another bare faced lie with China.

Unlike nearly all other technologies, the
cost of nuclear power has risen over time.


It has with coal too, because of the much higher costs
of clean power generation with coal and no longer using
cheap lignite coal for power generation because its so dirty.

Even its supporters recognize that it has never been
cost-competitive in a free-market environment,


Another bare faced lie.

and its critics point out that the nuclear industry
has followed a "negative learning curve."


Another bare faced lie.

Both the Nuclear Energy Agency and International Energy Agency
have concluded that although nuclear power is a "proven low-carbon
source of base-load electricity," the industry will have to address
serious concerns about cost, safety, and waste disposal if it is to
play a significant role in addressing the climate-energy nexus.


It already does with France generating 90% of its electricity that way.

But there are deeper problems that should not be brushed aside.
They have to do with the fear and the reality of radiation effects.


There is no reality of radiation effects. Nukes put FAR less radioactivity
into the atmosphere than coal fired power generation does, even if you
include the tiny handful of nuke failures like Chernobyl and Fukushima.

At issue is what can be called "invisible contamination,"


Pity that coal fired power generation produces vastly more of that than
nukes do.

the sense that some kind of poison has lodged in
one's body that may strike one down at any time


Pity that coal fired power generation produces vastly more of that than
nukes do.

-even in those who had seemed unaffected by a nuclear disaster.


Who are in fact unaffected by a nuke disaster.

Nor is this fear irrational,


Corse it is when coal fired power generation produces vastly more of that
than nukes do.

since delayed radiation effects can do just that.


In fact they don't.

Moreover, catastrophic nuclear accidents, however infrequent, can bring
about these physical and psychological consequences on a vast scale.


Another bare faced lie. Neither Chernobyl nor Fukushima did anything of
the sort.

No technological system is ever perfect, but the
vulnerability of nuclear power is particularly great.


BULL****.

Improvements in design cannot eliminate
the possibility of lethal meltdowns.


That's another bare faced pig ignorant lie.
Some nuke designs don't even melt down.

And meltdowns don't have to be lethal either.

These may result from extreme weather;


BULL****.

from geophysical events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and
tsunamis (such as the one that caused the Fukushima event);


Trivially avoidable by not building nukes where those occur.

from technical failure;


Not possible to have a meltdown with some nuke designs.

and from unavoidable human error.


Ditto.

Climate change itself works against nuclear power;


Even sillier than you usually manage.

severe droughts have led to the shutting down
of reactors as the surrounding waters become
too warm to provide the vital cooling function.


Trivially avoidable by having the nukes cooled by sea water.

Advocates of nuclear energy invariably downplay
the catastrophic events at Fukushima and Chernobyl.


You clowns wildly exaggerate those events.

They point out that relatively few immediate deaths
were recorded in these two disasters, which is true.


And the total number of deaths too. FAR less than are seen with coal
mining.

But they fail to take adequate account of medical projections.


Another bare faced lie.

The chaos of both disasters and their extreme mishandling
by authorities have led to great disparity in estimates.


But still vastly fewer than coal mining and the movement of gas produces.

But informed evaluations in connection with Chernobyl project future
cancer deaths at anywhere from several tens of thousands to a
half-million.


Those arent informed evaluations, they are in fact hysterical lies.

AND coal powered generation puts FAR more radioactivity into the
atmosphere.

Studies of Chernobyl and Fukushima also reveal crippling
psychological fear of invisible contamination.


Nothing crippling about it.

This fear consumed Hiroshima and Nagasaki,


And it turned out to be a completely irrational fear.

and people in Fukushima painfully associated their own
experiences with those of people in the atomic-bombed cities.


More fool them.

The situation in Fukushima is still far
from physically or psychologically stable.


Because the evacuation was completely pointless.

This fear also plagues Chernobyl, where there have
been large forced movements of populations,


In fact **** all populations ever moved.

and where whole areas poisoned
by radiation remain uninhabitable.


That last is another bare faced lie.

All the rest of bare faced lies flushed where it belongs.