NewsTrust - Nuclear Power - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Why nuclear power is still a good choice

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Mark Lynas - Apr. 10 (Opinion) - Perspective is needed when deciding between nuclear and other power sources. Renewable energy and conservation aren't enough in the real world. And burning fossil fuels will only worsen global warming. What a strange turn of events. Instead of uniting the environmental movement in renewed opposition to nuclear power, the Fukushima disaster in Japan has divided it still further. An increasing number of green advocates, including some very prominent voices, have declared their support for nuclear power as a clean energy option, even as radioactive water accumulates and the timeline for cleaning up the contaminated areas extends by decades. Can they be serious? They can. The irony of Fukushima is that in forcing us all to confront our deepest fears about the dangers of nuclear power, we find many of them to be wildly irrational — based on scare stories propagated through years of unchallenged mythology and the repeated exaggerations of self-proclaimed "experts" in the anti-nuclear movement. As the British environmental writer George Monbiot has pointed out, if we took the scientific consensus on nuclear energy as seriously as we take the scientific consensus on climate change, we environmentalists would be telling a very different story.

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The conversation: Is nuclear power still the answer to our energy problems?

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Susanna Rustin - Mar. 26 (Opinion) - As we move to reduce our reliance on high-carbon energy, George Monbiot believes nuclear is the best option. No, says Caroline Lucas , renewables should be the priority. Susanna Rustin chairs the debate This week George Monbiot wrote that the Fukoshima disaster had won him over to nuclear power. Green MP Caroline Lucas believes the technology is costly and dangerous. Susanna Rustin brought them together, and heard the arguments. Caroline Lucas: There are cheaper, faster, safer, more effective ways of getting our emissions down than going nuclear. George Monbiot: But we're asking that renewables replace our fossil fuel-based electricity system. We're asking that they replace much of our domestic heating, and supply much of our transport. If, added to all that, we are requesting that the current nuclear generation is replaced with renewables, then we make that task a whole lot tougher. And one of the things Fukoshima has done for me is to show that the side-effects of nuclear power are ...

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Japan's radiation battle gets rougher

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

MSNBC - By Alan Boyle - Mar. 26 (Opinion) - The battle to stabilize Japan's stricken nuclear complex just got tougher, due to the radioactive water that is apparently leaking from the reactors.

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Why we're still split over the atom

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Sydney Morning Herald - By Deborah Smith - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - The Fukushima nuclear crisis will have a lasting impact in Australia. Comfortably reliant on enormous coal reserves - and with Homer Simpson helping shape attitudes to nuclear power - Australia is most unlikely to adopt this energy source to tackle climate change in the near future. Twenty-five years after the Chernobyl disaster, with community concerns focused on the hazards of a warming world, there had been signs of a public reconsideration of nuclear as a low-carbon option. But any fledgling support is now likely to evaporate, researchers say. Advertisement: Story continues below Australians have long tended to have polarised views on nuclear energy. And those in each camp still see things very differently after events of the past week in Japan.

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A Price Too High?

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Bob Herbert - Mar. 19 (Opinion) - In addition to the inherent risks with regard to safety and security, the nuclear industry has long been notorious for sky-high construction costs, feverish cost-overruns and projects that eventually are abandoned. The Union of Concerned Scientists, in a 2009 analysis of the costs associated with nuclear plant construction, said that once a plant came online it usually led to significant rate increases for customers: “Ratepayers bore well over $200 billion (in today’s dollars) in cost overruns for completed nuclear plants...."

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Japan’s real disaster

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Gregg Easterbrook - Mar. 16 (Opinion) - The situation in Japan is horrific — but because of the earthquake and tsunami, not because of the malfunctioning atomic reactor station. The earthquake and its awful aftermath killed at least thousands of people, perhaps tens of thousands. That is an unspeakable tragedy. The damaged reactors at Fukushima haven’t killed anyone, and while posing a clear danger, especially to workers heroically fighting the malfunction, the odds are that any harm to public health will be minor, if public health is harmed at all.

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An Old Nuclear Problem Creeps Back

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Matthew L. Wald - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - The American nuclear industry, primed to begin new construction projects for the first time in 30 years, is about as eager for an operating problem at an old reactor as the oil industry was for a well blowout on the eve of opening the Atlantic coast to oil drilling. Nonetheless, a nuclear reactor where a hidden leak caused near-catastrophic corrosion in 2002 has experienced a second bout of the same problem.

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An Energy Strategy for Grown-Ups

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Opinion Journal (WSJ) - By Lamar Alexander - Jun. 11 (Opinion) - The tragic Gulf oil spill has produced overreaction ("end offshore drilling"), demagoguery ("Obama's Katrina") and bad policy recommendations ("We must generate 20% of our electricity from windmills"). None of this helps clean up and move forward. If we want both clean energy and a high standard of living, here are 10 steps for thoughtful grown-ups:

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April 'Earth Month' our worst ever

Sun, 02 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Danny Westneat - May. 02 (Opinion) - April was "Earth Month," a time to show our love for the planet. Surely no one is more relieved this observance has come to an end than Earth.

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Obama's nuclear policy takes one step forward and two steps back

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By John Horgan - Mar. 30 (Opinion) - Obama has recently taken one step toward a nuclear free world, and two steps away from it. First, the forward step. Last week, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to slash their strategic nuclear arsenals from 2,200 warheads each to 1,500. The U.S. and Russia will still have almost 20,000 warheads between them, but this step still deserves a big yay. In February, however, Obama took another step that will make it harder to rid the world of nuclear threats once and for all. He announced that the Department of Energy would provide $8 billion in loan guarantees to help a utility build two new reactors in Georgia.

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Obama's risky nuclear renaissance | Kate Sheppard

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Kate Sheppard - Feb. 17 (Opinion) - Barack Obama?s promise to fund new nuclear power plants is a major financial gamble – and US taxpayers will foot the bill In his first state of the union address last month, Barack Obama declared that creating new clean energy jobs "means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country". The following week, his administration proposed tripling the amount of money available for loan guarantees for nuclear power, to $54.5bn. And today, the administration took the next logical step in their plan to kick-start the nuclear revival in the United States, announcing that they will award the first loan to two new reactors in Burke County, Georgia – marking the first expansion of nuclear power in the United States in three ...

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Iran's nuclear programme: Deadline missed

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 24 (Editorial) - Iran has again failed to do deadlines. It has been evading them in the seven years since an opposition group first outed its extensive covert nuclear programme, despite five UN Security Council resolutions that have told it to halt its suspect nuclear work. After talks that ended in Vienna on October 21st, Iran and the three countries trying to strike a side-deal over new fuel for a Tehran-based nuclear reactor were told by Mohamed ElBaradei, outgoing chief of the UN’s nuclear guardian, that they had just two days to take his draft agreement or leave it.

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Britain's green revolution will power economic recovery

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Gordon Brown - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - Two centuries ago, Britain was at the forefront of a new industrial age that transformed our small island into the workshop of the world and a global economic powerhouse. Now we must once more harness the expertise of our engineers and scientists - and the ambition of our entrepreneurs - to embrace a green revolution that will significantly change the way we all live and work. At a historic summit in Italy last week, G8 leaders agreed to limit global warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels and cut their emissions by 80% by 2050.

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Depleted uranium

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salt Lake Tribune - Mar. 20 (Editorial) - Trouble is, Class A waste is supposed to be safe after 100 years. But, while relatively harmless at first, depleted uranium just keeps getting more and more radioactive as U-238 decays into thorium-230 and radium-226, and remains dangerous for thousands of years. Simply put, it doesn't belong in a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility.

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Does a Big Economy Need Big Power Plants?

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Amory Lovins - Feb. 09 (Opinion) - If I told you, “Many people need computing services, so we’d better build more mainframe computer centers where you can come run your computing task,” you’d probably reply, “We did that in the 1960’s, but now we use networked PC’s.”

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The Case For and Against Nuclear Power

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Michael Totty - Jun. 07 (Opinion) - Interest in nuclear power is heating up, as the hunt intensifies for "green" alternatives to fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. But the issue is far from settled.

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