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DW wrote:
Your conclusions are faith-based and not science based.
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And in an earlier message:
those "expected victims" are few and far between, relative to all other
forms of base load power
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Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen: Fukushima Meltdown Could Result in 1
Million Cases of Cancer
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/12/nuclear_engineer_arnie_gundersen_fukushima_meltdown
",,,the first lesson is that this is a technology that can destroy a
nation...the Fukushima accident was on the verge of causing the
evacuation of Tokyo. And had the wind been blowing the other way, across
the island instead of out to sea, Japan would have been cut in half and
destroyed as a functional country. So, this is a technology where
perhaps accidents don't happen every day, but when they do, they can
destroy a country.
"The other things are, the cost is astronomical. To fix this is going to
be something on the order of half-a-trillion dollars. All of the money
that Japan saved on oil over the 40 years that they've had nuclear
plants just got thrown away in the half-a-trillion-dollar recovery effort.
"And the other piece is the human issues. The health impacts to the
Japanese will begin to be felt in several years and out to 30 or 40
years from cancers. And I believe we're going to see as many as a
million cancers over the next 30 years because of the Fukushima incident
in Japan.
"The tsunami---the myth of the tsunami is that the tsunami destroyed the
diesels, and had that not happened, everything would have been fine.
What really happened is that the tsunami destroyed the pumps right along
the ocean. It doesn't matter that Diablo Canyon's plant is up on a hill.
The pumps have to be at the ocean, because that's where the water is. We
call that the loss of the ultimate heat sink. And the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission hasn't addressed that in the short-term issues coming out of
Fukushima. Without that water, the diesels will overheat, and without
that water, it's impossible to cool a nuclear core. So, as a country, we
haven't addressed this issue of the loss of the ultimate heat sink, and
we're kicking that can way down the road, not addressing it for years to
come."
So this is bunkum? (incidentally, Arnie Andersen in agreeing here with
Gorbachev that Chernobyl "destroyed the Soviet Union" I think is
misstating, but unintentionally. I doubt that is what Gorbachev meant,
as far as that goes. Final straw or precipitant, OK.) Nuclear technology
is not one of the most dangerous experiments ever undertaken? We can't
wait for the science-based precautionary principle? Mistakes happen?
Consequences to the human and other natural environment as collateral
damage?
Moreover, and very much on point, to what extent is it the drive to
expand and accumulate, amidst untold waste, mindless use of fossil fuels
in agricultural chemicals and machine production, pesticides,
fertilizers, long-distance transport, regional specialization,
diminishing returns on ruined soil, putting ten calories in for every
calorie out, agricultural produce designed for increased profitability,
not nutrition or intrinsic value, and savage maldistribution, in
combination with uncontrolled experiment on nature through alteration of
gene structure, and not at all the continued viability of the planet and
the species, that dictates the urgency that David sees as necessitating
crash-course nuclear power? Should we on the left, with our orientation
toward nature-aligned solutions, accept this? Check out Robert Biel on
urban agriculture, for example, which was posted here recently
http://groaction.com/discover/2347/entropy-capitalism-urban-ag-robert-biel-interview/
.
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