Update: I posted this just a few hours before the horrific 8.9 earthquake in Japan, and I am now hearing reports of a potential nuclear reactor disaster in the making. At the very least, Japanese officials are planning to release radioactive gases to relieve pressure on the damaged reactor in hopes of preventing a complete blow-out. For more on the Japanese disaster, the Huffington Post has live updates.
Original Post:
On the subject of nuclear power as an "alternative energy source":
If we even have to CONSIDER the possibility that any form of "fuel" is so dangerous that we have to take into account the threat that some terrorist organizatin with use it in some kind of "weapon of mass destruction", then why in the HELL are we even using this shit?
Not to mention the huge costs of building the plants in the first place (which gets passed down to consumers), the huge costs of storing the nuclear "fuel", the huge costs of storing the nuclear "waste", and the huge costs of even the miniscule chance of a single Chernobyl-like event... just ONE, no matter how "safe" they say it is nowadays, is one too many (especially as densely populated as America is, not to mention how the wind currents carry particulates pretty evenly across the U.S.; if you don't believe that, then why do you see red sunsets in Minnesota, New York and Alabama when California is having a wildfire?).
While I'm all for real renewables, the idea of adding nuclear power to that mix is ludicrous. In my view, it's little more than a sop to the nuke industry and the corporate giants who back it. Let that dog die in peace; it's currently 20% of our generation capacity, but it needs to be replaced as soon as possible with actual renewables that can't be used to some day dirty-bomb our cities... or accidentally irradiate an area the size of Texas for decades to come.
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