Deploying Nuclear Energy Before It’s Too Late
Dr. Alex Cannara (pictured below) is the incredibly senior proponent of nuclear energy whom I’ve referred to frequently here. He heads a group of about 50 of us who share his views, and writes:
Hi gang. I wrote a short note to Chris Hayes who just interviewed a fellow discussing how grave environmental things are. Chris is supportive of nuclear power, so he is easier to write.
It occurred to me that anyone who wishes to write any officials/groups on the subject might find the letter a useful source, so it’s attached…
Use anything you like from it. Note that the 2nd attached graphic drives home the effectiveness of nuclear power by showing how France far exceeds other countries on reducing emissions. If Ontario Canada were plotted, it too would display nuclear’s huge emissions benefit.
My reason for writing is that we’re getting into very bad straights caused by our bumbling around. Australia says The Great Barrier Reef is in dire straits from warmed waters (see before and after pic above), yet Aussies still ship coal around the world and avoid nuclear. Germany is similarly foolish.
The message is that there’s no runway left for fiddling with the controls. I hope each of you can use this letter’s content to reach one or more others who might help others wake up and take action.
Thanks,
Alex
Note: At the risk of stating the obvious, the reason that the Aussies are shipping coal all around the world is money. The wealthiest people in Australia know what everyone else does: coal is by far the most toxic energy source known to humankind, but it’s still just as lucrative as ever.
One would hope that these people would respond the way Richard Nixon’s lawyer John Dean did when his boss suggested hiding information on the Watergate break-in: “We could do it, but it would be wrong.” But no, they couldn’t care less that it’s wrong, and that it’s destroying the only home we have.
Though all the commercially scalable varieties of nuclear power have been clearly and repeatedly demonstrated to be tragically dangerous, exorbitantly expensive, and permanently toxic – from construction, to mining and refining, to normal operation, to decommissioning at the end of a relatively short working lifespan – we now must include them in the mix if we are to a) preserve the habitability of this planet for our species, and b) prevent the acceleration of the mass global extinction we have generated.
With severe regret, I have acknowledged that, while we once had the opportunity to exclude nuclear from our efforts to address climate disruption and transition off of prehistoric sunlight – in time to stave off the worst effects – the time for that has passed.
We are now left with no choice but to expand nuclear as part of the mix of solutions for slowing the atmospheric carbon dump we’ve engaged in for decades.
All I can say now is that we had better damn well be careful with it – end to end.