[SustainableTompkins] more thoughts on nuclear power

[Thomas Shelley]

Dear Friends--There is one basic flaw in the logic, or shall I say belief 
system, of Gwyneth Cravens and those like her.  It is embodied in her 
comment that, "If the world wants to keep plugging in big-screen TVs and 
iPods, it needs a steady source of power."  There is no way on Earth that 
we can continue the current rage for big-screen TVs and iPods and all of 
the other junk produced by our civilization.  We simply don't have the 
resources to maintain the production of the materials used in these 
devices, yet alone the energy used in their life cycles--the 24 acres that 
Jim Merkel refers to over and over again in his presentation/book and of 
which Annie Leonard makes abundantly clear in her new short video "The 
Story of Stuff".  Other basic flaws in nuclear power are that it <itself> 
perpetuates the insane consumption of "stuff"  (tens or hundreds of 
millions of dollars of life cycle cost for one plant) and that many of the 
materials used are going to peak--uranium is probably being the first metal 
to peak followed by several other key materials used to make reactors.  The 
price of nickel, a key ingredient in stainless steel, is going through the 
roof as economically viable deposits of nickel are being worked out or 
countries with these deposits are embroiled in wars and political/economic 
strife.  Besides, I think oil will peak first and the cost of the 
construction (of anything) will go soar so drastically that the utilities 
will no longer be able to afford concrete and the expansion of the nuclear 
industry will grind to a halt.  So nuclear power will never work and it's 
not going to happen.  This is a good thing since if we think plastic is 
forever.....  think again about nuclear waste!!  Fusion might have a 
chance, but it too will be too resource intensive to ever be a viable way 
to make power.  Using less of everything and making power and all else on a 
local scale, along with population reduction, is the best we can do now to 
save the planet.  My $.02.   Tom

Tom Shelley
118 E. Court St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 342-0864
tjs1 at cornell.edu
http://www.myspace.com/99319958
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