Death On The Horizon-Diablo Canyon ReactorsWatching CNN this morning, seems that Atlanta is all but OUT OF WATER, forced conservation enforced with $1,000 fines if you want your water back on immediately. What does that fact have to do with Nuclear Energy...perhaps, everything. Nuclear reactors, and electric production in general are the largest users of water in America right behind agriculture. In years to come conservation and protection of limited water resources is the most important issue facing our nation, our world. Nuclear plants and the electric industry must be reigned in, their water usage and raping of the environment stopped if we are going to address Global Warming, and reverse the melting of the global ice caps.
The first thing that has to be done, is every nuclear power plant has to be converted too a Closed Cooling System. Indian Point as a part of its original operating license was supposed to convert to a Closed Cooling system by 1979. Twenty-Eight years later the community around the plant is still waiting while Entergy and the NRC drag their feet, or simply ignore the issue. To understand this, to put the importance of Closed verse once through cooling of a nuclear reactor, we look at one statistic. A closed cooling system reactor is going to use close to 100 million gallons of water each and every day. Indian Point's two once through reactors use up 2.4 Billion gallons a day! Do the math for 28 years, and Indian Point by refusing to install a closed cooling system has WRONGFULLY used 28.5 trillion gallons of extra water. Think about that cold stark FACT...a trillion gallons of water is wrongfully going through Indian Point each and every year they are in operation.
Some will say, "What's the big deal?"
There are several big deals, and the biggest one is Nuclear's Thermal Discharge contributions to Global Warming. At Indian Point, that 2.4 Billion gallons of water sucked into the plant is viciously and turbulently thrown back into the Hudson River at 103-105 degrees in temperature. Ask yourselves why the NRC, and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) don't ever talk about Thermal Discharge contributions to Global Water...could it be one of those Inconvenient Truths that Al Gore keeps talking about? It does not take a significant rise in global temperatures to drastically affect global climate.
Further, the nuclear industry would have people believe that Nuclear Electric is pollution free. Not even close, and some of the industry's pollution streams are the most deadly known to mankind. Strontium, Tritium, Cesium and assorted daughter chains are contributing to elevated cancer rates in communities being forced to play host to these environmental monsters. The Nuclear Party Line...we are within allowable release criteria. Problem is, every time they cannot meet those criteria, the NRC grants a given licensee and exemption to the rules and regulations meant to protect human health and safety.
Another subject that the Nuclear Industry wants us all to ignore, is the industry's fish kills, numbering into the millions for each plant up and operating. Think about this for a moment...the National Geographic did an article some time ago wherein it was stated that 90 percent of the world's fish supplies have been fished out. If fish eggs and larvae are being killed because of impingement, thermal shock and other causes associated with the nuclear industry, those fish and larvae never grow up to replenish the world's rivers and oceans...so, not only is Nuclear Energy a major contributing source to Global Warming, but it is negatively impacting our ability to FEED THE WORLD.
Lastly, and this is germane to every electric utility in America...utility easement maintenance needlessly destroys over 100,000 mature trees each and every year because the industry refuses to employ updated technology and infrastructure improvements to eliminate 90 percent of this tree loss. This statistic is far more staggering when you realize that the utility industry does not consider a tree a tree unless it has a diameter four foot about the ground of at least six inches. Smaller than that, and no inventory is kept, the destruction written off as scrub. Trees are Mother Earth's scrubbers, help in COOLING the planet. It is time that we demand a change in electric industry standards world wide to stop this needless destruction.
The Inconvenient Truth is simple...Global Warming cannot be changed without major societal shifts in how we live our lives, without a paradigm shift in how corporations are allowed to do business. Nuclear is not GREEN, and is not the answer to Global Warming. When you look at the entire nuclear fuel cycle, factor in the nuclear industries CO2 contributions from mining through to long term disposal and storage of radioactive wastes, and you have a DESTRUCTIVE INDUSTRY that visits death every where it is.
The first thing that has to be done, is every nuclear power plant has to be converted too a Closed Cooling System. Indian Point as a part of its original operating license was supposed to convert to a Closed Cooling system by 1979. Twenty-Eight years later the community around the plant is still waiting while Entergy and the NRC drag their feet, or simply ignore the issue. To understand this, to put the importance of Closed verse once through cooling of a nuclear reactor, we look at one statistic. A closed cooling system reactor is going to use close to 100 million gallons of water each and every day. Indian Point's two once through reactors use up 2.4 Billion gallons a day! Do the math for 28 years, and Indian Point by refusing to install a closed cooling system has WRONGFULLY used 28.5 trillion gallons of extra water. Think about that cold stark FACT...a trillion gallons of water is wrongfully going through Indian Point each and every year they are in operation.
Some will say, "What's the big deal?"
There are several big deals, and the biggest one is Nuclear's Thermal Discharge contributions to Global Warming. At Indian Point, that 2.4 Billion gallons of water sucked into the plant is viciously and turbulently thrown back into the Hudson River at 103-105 degrees in temperature. Ask yourselves why the NRC, and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) don't ever talk about Thermal Discharge contributions to Global Water...could it be one of those Inconvenient Truths that Al Gore keeps talking about? It does not take a significant rise in global temperatures to drastically affect global climate.
Further, the nuclear industry would have people believe that Nuclear Electric is pollution free. Not even close, and some of the industry's pollution streams are the most deadly known to mankind. Strontium, Tritium, Cesium and assorted daughter chains are contributing to elevated cancer rates in communities being forced to play host to these environmental monsters. The Nuclear Party Line...we are within allowable release criteria. Problem is, every time they cannot meet those criteria, the NRC grants a given licensee and exemption to the rules and regulations meant to protect human health and safety.
Another subject that the Nuclear Industry wants us all to ignore, is the industry's fish kills, numbering into the millions for each plant up and operating. Think about this for a moment...the National Geographic did an article some time ago wherein it was stated that 90 percent of the world's fish supplies have been fished out. If fish eggs and larvae are being killed because of impingement, thermal shock and other causes associated with the nuclear industry, those fish and larvae never grow up to replenish the world's rivers and oceans...so, not only is Nuclear Energy a major contributing source to Global Warming, but it is negatively impacting our ability to FEED THE WORLD.
Lastly, and this is germane to every electric utility in America...utility easement maintenance needlessly destroys over 100,000 mature trees each and every year because the industry refuses to employ updated technology and infrastructure improvements to eliminate 90 percent of this tree loss. This statistic is far more staggering when you realize that the utility industry does not consider a tree a tree unless it has a diameter four foot about the ground of at least six inches. Smaller than that, and no inventory is kept, the destruction written off as scrub. Trees are Mother Earth's scrubbers, help in COOLING the planet. It is time that we demand a change in electric industry standards world wide to stop this needless destruction.
The Inconvenient Truth is simple...Global Warming cannot be changed without major societal shifts in how we live our lives, without a paradigm shift in how corporations are allowed to do business. Nuclear is not GREEN, and is not the answer to Global Warming. When you look at the entire nuclear fuel cycle, factor in the nuclear industries CO2 contributions from mining through to long term disposal and storage of radioactive wastes, and you have a DESTRUCTIVE INDUSTRY that visits death every where it is.
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