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How to discuss nuclear energy reasonably
Jerome a Paris, European Tribune
…we are left to choose between the pro-nuclear camp that tells those that disagree with them that they are ignorant, support the destruction of all life on the planet, and (worse!) are pro-coal shills, and the anti-nuclear camp that tells opponents that they are ignorant, support the destruction of all life on earth and (worse!) are pro-nuclear industry shills.
And nuclear energy debates seem well on their way to become as pointless as Israel-Palestine debates.
Which is a pity, because we will need energy (lots of it) in the foreseeable future, and we are burning lots of fossil fuels to get it, currently, with increasingly obvious consequences and costs. And the more noise is generated by the nuclear debate, the more coal plants get built. It would be a lot more useful if all parties focused on the real long term problem: carbon-spewing coal-plants, and on the real long term solutions: conservation and renewable energy.
(2X March 2007)
Also posted at Daily Kos
Env ministers: Nuclear energy ‘not the solution to global warming’
AFP
Environment ministers from Austria, Iceland, Ireland and Norway said Monday that nuclear power was not the solution to global warming.
In a joint statement following a meeting in Dublin, the four ministers from the non-nuclear countries said the “inherent risks and problems associated with the nuclear energy option remain and it can not therefore claim to be a clean alternative to fossil fuel use.”
They said it was the sovereign right of each country to decide its own energy mix.
“However, for Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and Austria, we voice serious concern that nuclear energy is being presented as a solution to climate change.
(26 March 2007)
Iraq veterans contaminated by depleted uranium
Australian Associated PRess
Two Australian soldiers who served in the first Iraq war have tested positive to depleted uranium (DU) contamination despite assurances from the federal government they had not been exposed, an anti-nuclear group said.
Any such admission from the government would leave it open to millions of dollars in compensation, said Pauline Rigby, project coordinator for the group Depleted Uranium Silent Killer (DUSK).
Urine samples from each of the men, who served in different areas of Iraq, were sent last year for uranium isotope analysis at the JW Goethe University in Germany at a cost of $1,200 each under the auspices of DUSK and the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC) in Canada, Ms Rigby said.
The results, now being evaluated for publication next month in two scientific journals, showed both men had tested positive to depleted uranium contamination more than 15 years after their return from the first Gulf War. Ms Rigby said depleted uranium was the toxic and radioactive waste from the nuclear enrichment process. ..
(27 Mar 2007)
