By Max Lindberg •
January 21, 2008
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I’ve been going on for some time now about the nuclear industry, the possibility of more nuclear power stations going online, and especially what to do with radioactive waste that’s been piling up for 50 years.
The answer to the waste situation was supposed to have been Yucca Mountain, a remote natural structure some 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Since it’s inception nearly 25 years ago, Nevadans have fought creation of a long-term storage facility in their back yard.
I wanted to know more about Nevada’s opposition to the Yucca Mountain project, so I picked up the phone and talked with Robert Loux, Executive Director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects in Nevada. He’s been going head-to-head with the DOE and other agencies for a long time, and has some interesting things to say about the project and the DOE.
By Max Lindberg •
January 18, 2008
It’s time to sequester voters in Nevada, and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton headed for the jugular vein today by declaring if she’s president, Yucca Mountain will be a thing of the past.
The State of Nevada has opposed the Yucca Mountain project since it’s inception, and now, years overdue and billions of taxpayers dollars later, it’s still at least 10 years away from completion.
I never thought I’d consider nuclear power a desirable solution to climate change until I read James Lovelock’s latest book, “The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & the Fate of Humanity” (see my previous post on the issue here).
Though I’m still not 100-percent convinced, Lovelock’s arguments are factual, rational and highly persuasive. So
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By Pem Charnley •
January 13, 2008
The former scientific advisor to Tony Blair - the man who urged our then prime minister to take global warming seriously, has come out and stated that he feels many green campaigners are actually a liability.
Sir David King has been quoted as saying: “There is a suspicion, and I have that suspicion myself, that a large number of people who label themselves ‘green’ are actually keen to take us back to the 18th or even the 17th century.
By Max Lindberg •
January 11, 2008
A long time ago, I heard, or read, that the human animal is the only creature on earth that’s content with living in it’s own waste. The analogy being that most animals choose to leave their waste products somewhere outside their nests. Our nest is this beautiful, blue marble, maybe the only one of its kind, and we’ve treated it with careless disrespect.
I’ve created a podcast from this material. If you’d rather listen, the link is here: nuclear-jan-10.mp3
Looking at the current mess we have with nuclear waste, landscapes scarred with huge open-pit mines and tons of unprotected waste from those operations, greenhouse gasses and pollution of our waters, to name a few, I think the old saying is correct.
By Pem Charnley •
January 10, 2008
It doesn’t matter which UK news source you choose. It’s a story that overshadows all others today.
Britain has decided to return to nuclear power in a big way. No matter that one of our former environment ministers was interviewed earlier and stated categorically what an absolutely ill-advised decsision this is. Gordon Brown’s government have today made the nuclear decision official.
One of the arguments for this decision is that the government states that it will help them tackle CO2 emissions.
Yet, according to experts, the reduction in emissions will be a hideously pathetic … 4%. That’s no argument for nuclear.
A growing chorus of voices is touting nuclear power as the energy solution that can help curb global warming. I’ve never been one to sing that tune, but I’m no longer as certain as I once was.
My doubts arose after reading James Lovelock’s “The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & the Fate of
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By Max Lindberg •
January 3, 2008
Sound familiar? Well, if you’ve been following my rant on nuclear power you’ll remember my first podcast on the subject concerning a paper written by researcher Jesse Ausubel, Nuclear Energy is Clean; Renewables Damage the Ecology , condemning renewables and praising nuclear energy.
Before continuing, once again I’ve produced a podcast on this subject, so if you don’t have time to read, tune in here: gaia.mp3
Now, 86 year old Dr. James Lovelock, pictured at the left, has written a book, The Revenge of Gaia (Penguin Books 2006), where he makes no bones about it - nuclear energy can save humanity, and “there is no sensible alternative to nuclear power if we are to sustain humanity,” a quote taken from the pages of the World Nuclear Association’s web pages.
By Max Lindberg •
July 26, 2007
Here’s another one who thinks nuclear power is the energy panacea we all need, and that renewable energy production is, as he states, "a rape of nature." Strong words and I just had to talk about it. The story comes from Science Daily, and there’s also a link to Nuclear Waste Storage that pretty well explains the problem, and takes a good look at the controversial Yucca Mountain storage facility in
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