Published: March 30th, 2012 at 12:59 pm ET
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Title: Expert: Nuclear Power Is On Its Deathbed – US News and World Report
Source: US News and World Report
Author: Jason Koebler
Date: March 30, 2012
A new report from a University of Vermont researcher says the cost of the safety measures needed for nuclear energy will eventually make the power source economically unviable
After the Fukushima power plant disaster in Japan last year, the rising costs of nuclear energy could deliver a knockout punch to its future use in the United States, according to a researcher at the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment.
New safety regulations enacted or being considered by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission would push the cost of nuclear energy too high to be economically competitive. [...]
That government backing of nuclear energy is starting to change after the Fukushima meltdown. Even the staunchest nuclear advocates say that with new technologies, nuclear power can always be made safer, but nothing can offer a guarantee against a plant meltdown. [...]
Report Excerpts
- “In the wake of a severe nuclear accident like Fukushima, the attention of policymakers, regulators, and the public is riveted on the issue of nuclear safety”
- “The scrutiny is so intense that it seems like the only thing that matters about nuclear reactors is their safety”
Mark Cooper, author of report
- [Without gov't underwriting of insurance] “nuclear power is neither affordable nor worth the risk. If the owners and operators of nuclear reactors had to face the full liability of a Fukushima-style nuclear accident or go head-to-head with alternatives in a truly competitive marketplace, unfettered by subsidies, no one would have built a nuclear reactor in the past, no one would build one today, and anyone who owns a reactor would exit the nuclear business as quickly as possible”
- “There was one permit [for a new reactor] issued recently, and there’s a second one expected in the near future. Frankly, that’s about it”
- “I don’t see any other reactors moving forward. The economics are so unfriendly that I don’t think the rest of the [proposals] are very active”
- “Sometimes the industry says ‘If people understood it better, they wouldn’t be as concerned. It’s a different kind of disaster, and the industry has to start accepting it is different. There’s a very wide impact in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster—you’ve got large dead zones, large exclusion zones. These problems you create, they strike a chord in human beings that is very deep-seeded and real. It’s the nature of the technology”
Read the report here
h/t Anonymous tips
Published: March 30th, 2012 at 12:59 pm ET
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sending...
Yahooo!!! Couldn't happen to a more deserving Industry!
SHUT THEM ALL DOWN!!
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Crossposting this…..get all the signers possible.
Please sign this letter to Obama Administration to STOP the loan to build 2 new nuke plants in Georgia. They're on the fence….help push them over to the right side. They won't stop building them for the right reasons, but who cares at this point, as long as they don't build any more.
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9662
SHUT EM ALL DOWN!
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SENT
Dear President Obama and Secretary Chu,
A $15B reactor plant will generate around $250M of profits per year.
And it takes 5 to 10 years to build.
That is a 1.6% annual rate of return on investment — IF the plant doesnt blow up, IF the "new technology" doesn't have unexpected problems.
This is a terrible investment.
THIS MAKES NO SENSE, even if, there was no danger.
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stock,
Great work! I remember that the recent survey said that the cost was the most successful argument against nuke.
Now can you change the addressee and translate it into Chinese? 80+ reactors by 2020. Shudder.
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STOP the Nuclear DEATH Machines!
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'…the COST of the safety measures needed for nuclear energy will eventually make the power source economically unviable'
No one can tell me that the COST of storing the Radioactive Contamination for eons will not cost the planet more than one can even measure.
…AND if that COST is measured in suffering and lives, (even the risk or potential of suffering), instead of dollars, then it's easy to understand just how insidious or stupid the instigators and perpetrators of the Nuclear Power industry actually are.
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"No one can tell me that the COST of storing the Radioactive Contamination for eons will not cost the planet more than one can even measure."
I will bet anything you are right!
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+1000 Into Eternity documentary gives an overwhelming view of storage issues
http://realitycheck.no-ip.info/forum/index.php/topic,21.msg424.html#msg424
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Beautifully stated. +++
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Phew! The stuff has really hit the fan now! Look for similarly unflatering portrails of the nuke industry by the rest of MSM. The public pressure to quit nuke power may become irrestible, even here in Let-Em-Do-Whatever-They-Want USA. Yea!
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[Without gov't underwriting of insurance] “nuclear power is neither affordable nor worth the risk. If the owners and operators of nuclear reactors had to face the full liability of a Fukushima-style nuclear accident or go head-to-head with alternatives in a truly competitive marketplace, unfettered by subsidies, no one would have built a nuclear reactor in the past, no one would build one today, and anyone who owns a reactor would exit the nuclear business as quickly as possible”
This is why the Ron Paul philosophy of abolition of government subsidies would drive a stake in the heart of nuclear power, whether Paul personally disapproves of nuclear power or not.
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I like Ron Paul. The only sane politician out there.
I hope he opens a bid for a third rail in politics and runs as a libertian. Then you will see the people like myself who have not voted in decades get registered and vote again.
It is estimated that 50% of the people who could vote don't. Why? Because either they are too lazy and don't care (20%) or care but don't like the choices (30%). That latter 30% could put Ron Paul in the White House. I hope he abandon's the Repugs and strikes out on his own.
GO RON PAUL!
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I cant and have not the means to do it right now, but I remebered some mondts ago, when a Japanes article stated that:
The power suply have NOT suffered anything when all the major Nucklear Power plants have been shutted down.
And what is the power stats right now, are the country Japan in anykind of Power shortage, check it out and I can already ashure you the Nubers will be stunning regarding the Japanes National power syply situation.
They have been Netto export of Power from Japan in this peroid, so people what is the facts about the fu.. NEED of our most insane way of boiling water ever invented.
I belive the Numbers will speak for them self and see thru the Lies the goverment and the Nucklear ind. have been feading us with for decades.
They are ALL lies.
And I havent even mentioned the isanity of the magnitut of subsidisings and all the pimped by the so caled Green movment.
I warned you, the Greens are Green in the outside, red inside.
peace
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Close … Tepco admits nuke power was never needed to begin with
http://realitycheck.no-ip.info/forum/index.php/topic,67.msg114.html#msg114
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It's "end of an era" for the nuclear plant.
Good riddance ! ! !
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HAVE YOU SEEN THIS!
Article on John Rowe, ex-CEO of Exelon…
"Nuclear power is no longer an economically viable source of new energy in the United States, the freshly-retired CEO of Exelon, America’s largest producer of nuclear power, said in Chicago Thursday.
And it won’t become economically viable, he said, for the forseeable future."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2012/03/29/exelons-nuclear-guy-no-new-nukes/
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Oops – just saw the headline on ENENews! lol
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Solar power is being installed on our home as the very moment. We made this decision because we are in favor of clean renewables. Like this we add our little nail in the coffin of nuclear power and oil or gas powered generating stations.
Could there be others out there that want to make the move? Like this you don't need to consult with the criminal elite – the criminal politicans can go find another issue to try to get elected on – the dirty bastards.
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Good job, you will never for even an instance regret that decision.
Calc up your annual rate of return on investment and post it….if you can post at my blog that talk nuke and solar.
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2012/03/solar-estimate-for-anti-radiation-fan.html
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Congratulations Gotham!!!
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"Nuclear Power Is On Its Deathbed"
not in South Carolina its not.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/03/30-7
"Nuclear Regulatory Commission OKs New Nuclear Plants in South Carolina"
good thing they are Westinghouse AP1000's…. what? safety concerns?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP1000
"
In April 2010, Arnold Gundersen, a nuclear engineer commissioned by several anti-nuclear groups, released a report which explored a hazard associated with the possible rusting through of the containment structure steel liner. In the AP1000 design, the liner and the concrete are separated, and if the steel rusts through, "there is no backup containment behind it" according to Gundersen.[17] If the dome rusted through the design would expel radioactive contaminants and the plant "could deliver a dose of radiation to the public that is 10 times higher than the N.R.C. limit" according to Gundersen. "
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RIP Nuke plants. Btw, if Obama or Romney (which ever is the next whatever) they need to say "no" to nuclear, or else they are a joke.
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http://www.thestate.com/2012/03/30/2214587/sceg-gets-final-approval-for-new.html
Nonsense. Power companies control NRC and the politicians with media and money, just like AIPAC. They don't care what the people think or want. There's 4 new reactor beasts being built within 150 miles of my home in Charleston, SC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq66aCNBHmg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDo3kJ8P9Sg
Wish us luck….
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Living in western New York – 20 miles from the only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant that ever operated in the USA, there is a tremendous amount of cancer, and MS. Very scary. The West Valley Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing plant recovered over 4000 lbs of plutonium before leaks and better environment regulations forced the plant to close. Plutonium was leaked into nearby Cattaraugus Creek – which feeds into lake Erie. The site was abandoned and left to New York State to clean up. What a mess. Who knows how many in this area got cancer from this site. This is stupid way to boil water and there is still no place to store the waste – except in spent fuel water-filled pools that boil away if the power goes out – BRILLIANT design guys!
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Haikus on Kudankulams
Farmers toil in fields
Farmers even now labour
Using their muscles!
Rate of doing work
Gigawatts per square meter
Wheat and oats result
They pluck fruits and almonds
Nuts cracked in Bramah presses
Fresh fruits eaten lush
Trees grow spending little
Of fresh waters transpired
Equitably shared!
Power flow through trees same
As through all life using sun
Transpire and respire
Hundred watts per head
Hundred twenty gigawatts
Hundred twenty crores!
This through nuke fusion
Far far away in the sun
Non-clonal rebirths!
Earth accepts the dead
As nourishment well deserved
Biodegrades swell!
But you chose Kudan
Over the heads of all life
Powerless poisons!
Its just a mirage
That electricity flows
From Kudankulam!
Contaminated
We will all be and our babes
Genes deformed deadly
Realise, shut down
Close down all nukes all over
Spare us nuke terror
Nukes every five years
Cause vast stretches of wasteland
Forever useless.
Nuclear wastes are new
Nature despoiled forever
State terrorism.
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Please replace Gigawatts per square meter with
Gigawatts per square km
Thanks.
Theres many a slip
Between oats and lips: god's filter!
Bioconcentrate!
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