Friday, April 20, 2007

Roundtable on Nuclear Energy

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has an online roundtable about carbon mitigation value of nuclear energy. Participating are R. Stephen Berry, the former Special Advisor to the Director of Argonne National Laboratory for National Security; Amory Lovins, the CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute; and Peter A. Bradford, member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Lovins, a long-time opponent of nuclear energy, vigorously states the anti-nuke view.

Those touting the green potential of nuclear energy, Lovins says, "are inviting us into a dangerous la-la land in which nuclear power will be oversubsidized and underscrutinized while more promising and quicker responses to climate change are neglected...

"Nuclear power plants are made safe by combinations of vigilance and careful engineering and construction. If, in an effort to improve their dubious economics, we again freight the technology with unrealistic demands and expectations this safety can be seriously compromised...

"Asserting that nuclear power answers climate change is like asserting that invading Iraq answers 9/11. This is policy making built on distraction, bolstered by deception, burdened by debt, and bound for disillusion."

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