Nuclear Roulette (eBook)

The Truth about the Most Dangerous Energy Source on Earth

Gar Smith (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2012
320 Seiten
Chelsea Green Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-60358-435-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Nuclear power is not clean, cheap, or safe. With Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, the nuclear industry's record of catastrophic failures now averages one major disaster every decade. After three US-designed plants exploded in Japan, many countries moved to abandon reactors for renewables. In the United States, however, powerful corporations and a compliant government still defend nuclear power-while promising billion-dollar bailouts to operators.Each new disaster demonstrates that the nuclear industry and governments lie to "e;avoid panic,"e; to preserve the myth of "e;safe, clean"e; nuclear power, and to sustain government subsidies. Tokyo and Washington both covered up Fukushima's radiation risks and-when confronted with damning evidence-simply raised the levels of "e;acceptable"e; risk to match the greater levels of exposure.Nuclear Roulette dismantles the core arguments behind the nuclear-industrial complex's "e;Nuclear Renaissance."e; While some critiques are familiar-nuclear power is too costly, too dangerous, and too unstable-others are surprising: Nuclear Roulette exposes historic links to nuclear weapons, impacts on Indigenous lands and lives, and the ways in which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission too often takes its lead from industry, rewriting rules to keep failing plants in compliance. Nuclear Roulette cites NRC records showing how corporations routinely defer maintenance and lists resulting "e;near-misses"e; in the US, which average more than one per month.Nuclear Roulette chronicles the problems of aging reactors, uncovers the costly challenge of decommissioning, explores the industry's greatest seismic risks-not on California's quake-prone coast but in the Midwest and Southeast-and explains how solar flares could black out power grids, causing the world's 400-plus reactors to self-destruct. This powerful expos concludes with a roundup of proven and potential energy solutions that can replace nuclear technology with a "e;Renewable Renaissance,"e; combined with conservation programs that can cleanse the air, and cool the planet.

Rezensionen

lt;p>Kirkus Reviews-

An impassioned case against the use of nuclear power. 
In his debut, Earth Island Journal editor emeritus Smith gathers together several arguments against nuclear power into a concise yet detailed package. He forcefully asserts that nuclear power plants are not only unsafe—with severe accidents at nuclear plants in the United States, Russia and Japan serving to ‘illustrate the ultimate insanity of the nuclear option’—but also polluting, costly and inefficient. He gives several examples of nuclear-plant and government officials downplaying potentially serious risks to the public, and, in a compelling chapter, enumerates the failings of what he calls ‘five of the worst U.S. reactors.’ He examines a host of health and safety issues at plants all over the country, including the much-criticized Indian Point plant north of New York City. Smith concludes with several recommendations for alternatives, advocating for heightened energy efficiency and renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal power. The author comes at his subject from an environmentalist point of view, with an explicit desire to ‘pull the plug on this dangerous technology,’ and some readers may be skeptical of his concluding vision of a ‘sustainable compassion economy.’ Many of the arguments will also be familiar to veterans of the nuclear-power debate. Nonetheless, Smith lays out an impressively researched narrative, drawing on facts from a wide range of sources, and makes a strong case that will be hard for even nuclear-power advocates to dismiss out of hand. For casual readers, the book presents a well-written introduction to the anti-nuclear-power position. 
A penetrating argument against today's nuclear age.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 25.10.2012
• Vorwort: Ernest Callenbach, Jerry Mander
• Verlagsort: White River Junction
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 150 mm
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Elektrotechnik / Energietechnik
• Schlagworte: dangerous • dangerous energy • dangerous energy sources • earth • energy sources • Environment • renewable energy • Truth
• ISBN-10: 1-60358-435-8 / 1603584358
• ISBN-13: 978-1-60358-435-7 / 9781603584357