The former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
says every single reactor in the nation should be shut down, starting with the
riskiest.
The first thing to
remember about nuclear power is that it’s not safe. Just ask Japan.
The second thing to
remember is that nuclear power isn’t cheap. Connecticut draws half its
juice from nuclear reactors and has the second-highest rates in the country,
after Hawaii.
The third thing to
know is that everybody lies about it. The power plant designers lie, the
builders lie, the utility companies lie, the regulators lie, and the
politicians lie.
But kids living downwind
are already getting thyroid
cancer, fish in the
nearby sea are no longer safe to eat, and radioactive tuna
are cruising the California coast. As with the Chernobyl disaster,
tens of thousands of people may never be
free to return home.
Meanwhile at many U.S.
nuclear reactors, efficiency is declining and the risk of accidents is rising.
Unlike at a coal-fired power plant, you can’t just hit the off switch if
there’s a flood, drought, or power failure. All those spent nuclear fuel rods
have to be cooled for years to come, whether you have water handy or not.
In Connecticut,
Dominion Resources is seeking
permission to keep pumping water from Long Island Sound, even
when global warming has heated that body up beyond the
temperature allowed by federal regulations.
Still not worried?
Consider this: Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Gregory B.
Jaczko declared in April that he believes every single
nuclear power plant operating in the nation should be shut down,
starting with the riskiest.
This isn’t completely
far-fetched. So far this year, power companies have announced plans to close five
reactors. Most recently, Entergy relented on its mission to keep its
creaky Yankee nuclear
plant in Vermont operational over the state government’s clear
objections.
At least 37 more
reactor closures could follow, according to Mark Cooper, a senior
fellow for economic analysis at Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and
the Environment.
Can environmentalists
celebrate this nuclear downsizing trend?
Nope. Most experts
aren’t attributing this rash of reactor closures to any newfound safety
concerns among the industry’s leaders. Instead, they’re blaming the fracking
boom.
As it devastates the
environment, cheap fracked gas is sapping demand for nuclear reactors and coal-fired
power plants.
Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords, a non-profit national editorial
service run by the Institute for Policy Studies. OtherWords columnist William A. Collins is
a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut.
OtherWords.org