Climate Change and Nuclear Power Revival

I was in school in the Atomic City, Los Alamos, N.M. in 1951. I guess they knew it would be futile to "Duck and Cover" in a nuke attack! So we weren’t drilled in that exercise. We were constantly reminded that the Soviets were our rivals for world domination and that they might attack us at any moment without warning. We were never allowed to forget that it might happen.

Nuclear power was a really big thing back then. At first we were told that it would make electricity so cheap that they wouldn’t even meter its use. Just send everyone a bill for a nominal service fee to cover administrative costs. And of course there was always the nuclear deterrent! Remember MAD? Mutually Assured Destruction! If you attack us we will destroy you before we are ourselves destroyed.

Three Mile Island melted down and changed the way Americans view nuclear power. Suddenly the word got out that it wasn’t really as safe as we had been led to believe it was. We found out that we had been lied to by both the industry and the Government. We found out that it wasn’t without cost to the people who mined the ore and processed it into fuel rod pellets. Remember Karen Silkwood? She was killed in a car crash on her way to testify at a hearing exposing the dangers to workers in nuclear fuel processing. Some say it was no accident. Americans came to fear the nuclear industry and if the government had continued to support it we would have come to fear the government too. So the nuclear industry lost support and all but died.

Now that we don’t have the Soviet Union to be afraid of anymore and since Americans have learned of the dangers inherent in nuclear power there is no reason for large scale uranium mining and milling. So the nuclear industry has been lobbying heavily for a revival of nuclear power plants. They are saying the same things they told us before, that it is safe and clean and will be cheaper than coal or petroleum fueled power plants. They have convinced Jeff Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy Committee, to support it. He is from New Mexico and there is a lot of uranium in New Mexico and the state is hurting for money. And President Obama has bought into it too. They are hoping to give many billions of dollars in subsidies to revive the industry. It may not contribute to global warming because it doesn’t emit greenhouse gasses. But it is neither clean nor safe!

Keep the masses afraid and you can control of them. If it isn’t fear of war with a foreign power it is fear of a terrorist attack. Or, knowing that most Americans think global warming is a problem, use that as a means of keeping us feeling that we need the government to protect us. I don't know when it started but I am sure the Government has been doing it for a very long time. Just keep the threat level high! I wish they would act in a way that would make us feel secure instead of constantly worrying. Maybe they think it is the only way to maintain control over us. And now big money is exerting itself spending lots of money to convince us and our lawmakers that they will save us. Nuclear power to the rescue!