Eight years ago this week apocalyptic radiation clouds began pouring out of Fukushima, Japan.
They haven’t stopped.
Nor have the huckster holocaust deniers peddling still more of these monsters of mass destruction. Some even deny the health impacts from Fukushima fallout that’s already more than 100 times greater than Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s.
Many push fake “new generation” reactors already priced out of viability by renewables.
But far more deadly is their demand to operate the old, crumbling reactors that daily grow more dangerous.
Here are some inconvenient truths:
- About 450 reactors now spew huge quantities of waste heat that kill our global weather patterns.
- All daily emit carbon, and more during “normal” operations and the mining, milling, and enrichment of radioactive fuel.
- All daily kill millions of marine creatures with hot offal dumped into oceans, lakes, and rivers.
- Many kill birds and bats with tall cooling towers that spew radioactive and chemical pollutants.
- None can safely manage their über-intense radioactive waste.
- All raise nearby human infant death rates.
- All see human infant death rates drop when they shut.
- All daily risk more partial explosions as at Fermi I (1966) and Three Mile Island 2 (1979), and full ones like Chernobyl 4 (1986) and Fukushima 1, 2, 3 and 4 (2011).
- Many sit on or near active earthquake faults.
- Many are vulnerable to death by tsunami.
- Most are vulnerable to lightning strikes and air attack.
- All are embrittled by decades of constant heat, pressure, and radiation that make them likely to shatter in an accident.
- All are internally cracked to varying degrees.
- Many suffer from “deferred maintenance” left undone by greedy owners.
- Some are visibly crumbling.
- The industry is short of skilled operators.
- Some old reactors operate with pre-digital control systems.
- Overstuffed spent fuel pools endanger us even more than the reactors themselves.
- Most spent fuel casks are thin and many are deteriorated.
- Nowhere are there credible evacuation plans.
- Bankrupt nuclear utilities can’t manage their basic grid, let alone run dying reactors.
- Davis-Besse’s owner blacked out 50 million people in 2003 with unmaintained power lines.
- Diablo Canyon’s owner is under federal criminal probation for killing eight people in a 2010 San Bruno gas explosion caused by its faulty pipes.
- PG&E’s faulty power lines sparked 2017-18 fires that killed more than 80 people, incinerated more than 10,000 structures, drew $10 billion in lawsuits, and destroyed one of the world’s most precious ecosystems.
- In bankruptcy, PG&E is now stiffing fire victims it promised to compensate.
- A month ago, it burned down five buildings in San Francisco.
The forever “Nuke Renaissance” still fantasizes about new reactors that won’t be built.
The small ones are already priced out. The big ones are behind schedule and over budget.
Tax/ratepayer billions are being scammed to support dangerous, decrepit old nukes that can’t compete with wind, solar, batteries, and LED.
Their owners don’t want them inspected.
When the next Fukushima blows, they’ll yell that no one will be hurt, the climate won’t be heated, and the oceans will be safe.
But today our lives depend on moving those wasted trillions into our vital Solartopian transition.
All those Fukushimas-in-waiting must shut now.
And never again—like eight years ago this week—can we let exploding nukes destroy our climate, poison our oceans, kill our children, and threaten all life on earth.
Reprinted by permission of the author. See the original on Reader Supported News.
CONTRIBUTOR
Comments