NUCLEAR POWER IS DEAD, BUT
THE HOAX CONTINUES
An article https://thebulletin.org/2021/08/us-attorney-details-illegal-acts-at-construction-projects-sealing-the-fate-of-the-nuclear-renaissance/ from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists cements what I
have been saying for the past 15 years and more: nuclear power is not cheap,
clean, safe, and even necessary, and is morally corrupt. The huge nuclear industry is guilty of the
same tactics as the fossil fuel industries (they are in essence the same) in
spending hundreds of millions of dollars promoting misinformation and lies, and
suppressing the real information we know about the human health, environmental,
and economic dangers we’ve seen in the deployment of nuclear power over the
years. The primary reason is the same:
there has always been, and still is huge amounts of money to be made, legally
and illegally, from taxpayers and ratepayers.
The so-called “renaissance”
proposed in 2006, hoped to build 38, then 8, and finally 2 major necessary nuclear
power projects. These were supposed new
and better designs and would correct past mistakes in the construction and
operation of the 105 reactors built in the US between 1960 and 1988. With Federal loan guarantees of $12+billion,
what could go wrong? As the article
details, and I have updated periodically, the South Carolina project was
canceled half-way through its construction, years behind schedule, and having
wasted $9+billion of ratepayer and taxpayer monies. The Vogle project in Georgia is experiencing
very similar issues, now 90% completed, but years behind schedule for its startup,
and a cost exploding from $6 billion to $30+/-?? And then the big question for it is will it actually
work! How much will the electricity it ever produces cost its customers, while
the utilities reap their guaranteed profits?
Similar problems face the nuclear giant Electricity de France, with their “new
and better” EPR reactor design. Their “nuclear
renaissance” began with construction in Flamanville, France, and Olkiluoto,
Finland, both now years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. The first EPR reactor recently completed in
China experienced a major fuel problem, and was shut down after only a few
months of operation. The UK is still
supposedly in line to build several of these reactors. So, it seems, the era of big centralized
nuclear power plants is over, and the industry will focus on the money to be
made in the decommissioning of the old reactors as they retire. PG&E just raised rates again to cover the
new $3.9billion decommissioning cost estimate supposedly to begin in 2025 and
take a bit of time to complete. Illinois
has granted $700million in federal money to keep the two Excelon plants running
for a few more years before they will be retired.
You would think this would be
enough, but the nuclear industry continues the hoax…claiming that we need
carbon-free nuclear generation to save the planet from climate change. This is very far from the truth. Although the actual steam production of
electricity from a nuclear fission reactor does not emit CO2, the entire
nuclear fuel infrastructure (mining, processing, enrichment, fuel fabrication,
a lot of operation and maintenance, construction of all the facilities, and
equally important, the management of nuclear wastes) has an enormous carbon
footprint. The other hoax is that the
“new” generation of reactors such as the Small Modular Reactor, and the
advanced molten salt reactors, etc., are for now only on paper. It will take years, and of course taxpayer
money to develop and commercialize, and there is no guarantee that they will
work, or be cheaper, or safer, or even necessary. The same hype exists for Fusion, which at
best is many years away from any kind of commercialization. And again, I stress, in all the glitz and
hoopla, there is no mention of what to in reality do with all the nuclear wastes
that are generated.
In these troubled times, we
are beginning to see the reality of climate change, and beginning to assess the
damage laid upon us citizens by a very few wealthy and powerful industrialists
preying on our fears and ignorance. With
the increasing cost-competiveness of local decentralized renewables, energy storage,
efficiency, and microgrids, the biggest issues now are dealing with the huge aging national grid, which is becoming
more expensive to maintain, and more vulnerable in today’s climate.
Let the sun shine, the winds
blow, and the tides sway back and forth!
https://www.thelocal.fr/20170209/flamanville-frances-own-nuclear-nightmare/
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/olkiluoto_3_reactor_delayed_yet_again_now_12_years_behind_schedule/11128489
https://www.newsweek.com/china-taishan-nuclear-plant-shuts-down-damaged-fuel-rods-1614636
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-08-23/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-may-be-cause-for-climate-optimism?mkt_tok=ODUwLVRBQS01MTEAAAF_FyUzfTLg6I9yxBBt47hVevJmDCXq7YOhqUQb0B4NegCNF9ExwCKGF3RQqAi5Egbi_VbeqZlmKFpZ2i8TxjvkbRtRy2suJhUJmNJdoUbtz8fC
