Shameless self promotion, and a follow-up

by David Safier

My column in this week's Explorer is about nuclear energy generation — that it has reached its peak and is beginning a downhill slide into the nuclear waste dump of history.

Did you know Germany plans to shut down its nuclear plants by 2022 and replace them with a combination of renewable energy and conservation? Germany gets about 20% of its energy from nukes, just like the U.S.

Did you know General Electric predicts solar will be cheaper than both fossil fuel and nuclear generated electricity in as little as three to five years?

Did you know Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant not only had three reactors go into meltdown — something denied originally — but they most likely have gone into melt-throughs. The column explains what probably happened. Think China Syndrome.

Here's a quote from the column, which leads into a piece in today's NY Times.

After the disaster [at Fukushima] and the lies that followed, how can anyone believe industry PR people who claim U.S. nuclear plants – like the huge Palo Verde facility outside Phoenix – are safe from a Fukushima-level catastrophe?

According to the Times, our Nuclear Regulatory Commission says U.S. plants are not as safe as the industry claims.

See, the industry claims are based on an event where either electricity from the grid or from on-site generators goes out. They haven't considered that both could be lost simultaneously, like at Fukushima.

And, the industry scenario assumes the electricity will be back on in four to eight hours.

In other words, the U.S. nuke plants are safe, so long as nothing really major happens. After all, who could have predicted an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and 50 foot waves engulfing a power plant? No one. Which, of course, is exactly the point.