THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 71, March 20, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
IF "NO NEW NUKES," WIND WON'T KEEP US WARM
By Dennis T. Avery
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS, HYDROCARBONS, & WIND TURBINES: THE INADEQUACY OF WIND POWER AS AN ENERGY
SOURCE IN MODERN SOCIETIES -- HOW MANY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WOULD DIE IN A SEVERE WINTER, IF GREENPEACE'S
FAVORITE WIND TURBINES DIDN'T HAVE ANY WIND TO TURN THEM? WHAT MUST BE DONE TO ENSURE THAT WE
PRODUCE ENOUGH ELECTRICITY TO LIGHT, HEAT, & COOL OUR HOMES, SCHOOLS, OFFICES, STORES, HOSPITALS, ETC.:
EITHER BUILD & OPERATE MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS, UNDER SAFE CONDITIONS, OR BE WILLING & PREPARED
TO USE COAL, OIL, & NATURAL GAS AS SOURCES OF THE ELECTRICAL ENERY WE NEED -- ABOVE ALL, DEFEAT & DESTROY
THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT
FULL STORY:
The air over northeastern Japan is slightly radioactive — not at dangerous levels for people, but an indicator that higher
levels might come. The newspapers in Japan and here are talking earnestly about failures in pressure vessels and falsified
safety reporting, as they should.
But, now, a slightly hysterical Surgeon General of the United States is recommending that millions of U.S. residents buy
iodide crystals to ward off potential thyroid cancer — from a nuclear event thousands miles away. Four thousand people
were on the site of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986; nine have died from thyroid cancer exposure.
Greenpeace, under a heading of “No New Nukes,” is trumpeting:
“There is no such thing as a ‘safe’ dose of radiation….
If a meltdown were to occur, the accident could kill and
injure tens of thousands of people.”
This is a two-subject statement:
Obviously we are all exposed to safe levels of radiation
every day; and many of us owe our lives to the
tumor-destroying blessing of directed medical radiation.
There has never been a “meltdown” — the temperatures
in a nuclear plant are about 550 degrees F – the highest
setting of your home oven.
Lost in the discussion is this simple reality: These nuclear plants withstood a 9.0 earthquake — even greater than their
design strength — with no reactor problems. But the diesel generators that backed up the nukes’ electrical cooling
systems were drowned by the tsunami. The huge wave knocked out the power grid for the entire region. Everybody
agrees it is the water that’s boiled out of the spent waste pools that is the real radioactivity risk to the public — because
the generators were knocked off line.
The New York Times says one of the diesel generators was in the basement of the reactor building — where the
tsunami waters quickly drowned it. At another plant, the generators were behind an 18-foot seawall, and the tsunami
was 21 feet high.
In 1990, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission identified diesel generator failure as one of the “most likely causes” of
nuclear accidents from an external event. That report was cited in a 2004 statement by Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial
Safety Agency, but apparently the folks at Tokyo Electric didn’t read it carefully. Now they face billions of dollars in
losses to their reactors and billions more in lawsuit damages -- instead of expenditure of a few thousand dollars to
ensure their diesel generators were up high enough to protect against a tsunami, like placing the generators on the roof
of the administration building!
There’s another lesson here, too — for the United States and for Greenpeace. It is dangerous to keep spent fuel rods
sitting around the reactor site, even when they’re protected by circulating water. We should immediately reopen work
on the long-delayed storage faculty at Yucca Mountain — so far blocked by environmentalist activist lawsuits and a
cowardly crowd in the U.S. Congress. Or, we could reprocess the spent fuel rods to recover much of the energy and
keep the nuclear plants sustainable.
Bottom line: How many thousands of people would die in a severe winter if Greenpeace's favorite wind turbines don’t
have any wind to turn them? Britain last Winter got just 9 percent of the rated generating capacity of its huge wind
turbine arrays. What kept Britons from literally freezing to death in their homes were the back-up fossil-fuel plants that
have to be kept in “spinning reserve” behind the erratic turbines. But the fossil backup required is why the wind
turbines don’t reduce greenhouse emissions. And they provide no protection for the public from weather just cold
enough to freeze ice in nearby ponds.
If we won’t build nuclear plants, we had better learn to love coal and oil to keep the lights on and the heat warming.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable
Global Warming Every 1500 Years. Readers may write to him at PO Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 2442; or send him
email at cgfi@hughes.net
Visit our website at www.cgfi.org
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XIII, 2011
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity