Expect a flood of applications
to build nuclear power plants,
writes alexander cockburn |
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The nuclear industry decorously restrained itself from raising a public cheer when the Nobel committee gave Al Gore half of this year's peace prize, but the industry's private emotions of gratitude have surely been fervent. In practical terms it has been the chief beneficiary of the uproar about man's supposed contribution to global warming.
Twenty years ago, as an answer to America's energy needs, nuclear power stood at a nadir in public esteem, particularly among environmentalists and precisely that segment of the population most concerned today about global warming.
The objections are as valid today as they ever were. Nuclear power plants produce large amounts of lethal toxic waste, trundled - often by rail - around the country, often through urban areas where fire or kindred accident could swiftly produce catastrophe. |
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Gore himself has been a friend to the nuclear industry from the first day he stepped into Congress
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The storage sites have been prone to leaks and poisoning of aquifers. The plants themselves are prone to boiler explosions and also to terrorist assault, again with potentially catastrophic human consequences.
Nuclear energy requires uranium, mined at grave human cost. It sustains the military production of nuclear weapons. Since nuclear power plants frequently break down, they have to be backed by coal-fired plants. Unless the US government assumes liability, the energy produced is extremely expensive.
Yet the immense irony is that many influential greenhouse alarmists have always been privately well aware that unless the nation shifted to energy sources and conservation measures that would be anathema to the most powerful corporate interests in the United States, the prime exit from the crisis they have been sponsoring is through a door marked 'nuclear power'.
Gore (left) himself has been a friend to the nuclear industry from the first day he stepped into Congress entrusted with the sacred duty to protect the budgetary and regulatory  |
Al Gore wins the Nobel Prize
Even with a Nobel Prize, Gore could be a loser
