New Nukes leave our Nation more Vulnerable.

The President’s call for new nuclear plants is short-sighted and reckless. Thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste produced at nuclear power facilities are currently stored precariously adjacent to our country’s waterways and oceans. And each year nuclear plants create additional tons of this lethal material.

The false claims of recent articles, which tout nuclear reactors as the solution to energy dependence and green-house emissions, blatantly ignore the terrorist aspect which most frightens US Citizens. All of these articles mention the “Achilles heel” of the nuclear industry as the daily production of long-lived deadly radioactive isotopes. Yet somehow when discussing emissions the nuclear industry only concern is what goes up, not what will be left on the earthquake active coast of California.

Reactor states have waited over ¼ a century for a solution to permanent storage of radioactive waste, only to discover that scientific studies were apparently falsified at Yucca Mountain, the Department of Energy’s only solution. Where will the nuclear waste at new nuclear plants be stored?

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensed a “temporary” high-level radioactive waste dump at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station a few years ago. It is important for Edison, SDG&E and PG&E ratepayers to know that the NRC has no definition for “temporary”. Both San Onofre and Diablo Canyon sit on fragile and earthquake vulnerable coastal bluffs. Groundbreaking for this nuclear dump has yet to begin.

Edison and PG&E are now asking the CPUC for permission to bill their ratepayers for close to a billion dollars each to replace aging steam generators which were supposed to last the life of both nuclear plants. What else will fail at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon? Original construction estimates for both San Onofre and Diablo were $600 million, both turned into over $5 billion in final costs. At San Onofre, the Unit One reactor that did not operate its full life. At both nuclear power facilities new security modifications are necessary and will likely continue, replacement of costly aging components will continue to increase, and both remain nuclear plants remain vulnerable to earthquakes, accidents, acts of malice and insanity. How in the world can this president speak of nukes as a way out of our energy dilemma?

Germany, Sweden, and Denmark are among the countries that are investing in renewable sources to increase energy independence and reduce their citizen’s vulnerability to a radioactive release that could devastate their safety and economy. These countries are also wisely phasing out their nuclear plants. Japan has also heavily invested in renewable energy sources.

California’s governor and state legislators are honing a policy that would use renewable technology and conservation to meet over 20% of our state’s energy needs in the next few decades. The state is determined to learn from its energy “crisis” and move from being the laughing stock of the nation to the leader of the United States with a clean and less vulnerable energy future.

Nuclear power once touted as “too cheap to meter” is a gigantic boondoggle. The nuclear industry is the only industry in the world unable to obtain insurance and requires the government to insure. If the same subsidies to mine, enrich, secure and store nuclear waste were offered to the renewable and conservation industry this country would truly be energy independent.

To reach energy independence we must begin to turn away from the heavily subsidized nuclear path to a forward thinking power policy that is not beholden to an industry that has a stronghold on our power sources. Coal, oil and nuclear all depend on finite fuels and leave our country hostage to high energy costs. The nuclear option also increases the vulnerability of our nation to an unthinkable radioactive release which could result from earthquakes, tsunamis, acts of terrorism, malice and insanity.

No Mr. President, our country must not become more dependent on dangerous energy sources, especially when cleaner and safer options are available.

Rochelle Becker, Executive Director Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility www.a4nr.org

Ms. Becker has spent three decades working on nuclear safety issues in California. She can be reached at rochelle@a4nr.org