Posts
June 22, 2010
Cheryl Cage (Explorer Opinion, June-16-2010) did her research, looked at the facts and tells us straight out that nuclear power plants are much too costly and risky for Arizona. She highlights Melvin’s misleading argument against solar energy and explains that Arizona should be leading rather than lagging the nation in the development of solar energy.
Her Republican opponent, incumbent State Senator Al Melvin would rather take the “damn the torpedoes full speed ahead” approach in his drive to make Arizona the richest state in the union by building four or five nuclear power plants and waste dumps around the state.
Like his friends in the nuclear industry, Melvin minimizes safety and ignores dangers. Don’t his talking points sound like BP telling us that oil rigs could never sink or that an oil spill could never rapidly envelop the entire Gulf of Mexico? The industry wants us to forget Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, or that nuclear energy really isn’t renewable, or simply faith that a catastrophe won’t happen.
In his Explorer opinion piece June-09-2010, Melvin says “Atomic energy is safe and clean. The US Navy has been underway on nuclear power for over half a century, without incident.”
Why doesn’t he acknowledge that in February of 2009 French and British submarines collided somewhere in the Atlantic? Or that there are 13 documented nuclear incidents involving nuclear powered ships and submarines from 1959-1992? See http://www.lutins.org/nukes.html Eight nuclear submarines lie at the bottom of the sea as a consequence of either accident or extensive damage: two from the United States, four from the Soviet Navy, and two from the Russian Navy. Japan and New Zealand have raised concerns about the safety of U.S. nuclear powered ships threatening their harbors.
The U.S. Navy does not disclose its risk management policies. Therefore sketchy press reports based on official reports, discount dangers. Nuclear power boosters maintain nuclear power is safe even though the risks are kept secret.
Melvin said in an Phoenix Horizon Eight TV interview in November, 2009 that he is already working with Arizona utilities and foreign investors on legislation that will
“…attract foreign investors in a safe and reasonable return on investment in this type of energy." He wants to make it safe to invest, but dangerous to live close to a nuclear waste dump. Melvin would make nuclear energy the primary source of power, the baseload. In that interview, Melvin indicated he is anxious to power through the “red tape” i.e. safety inspections, that hinder the construction of nuclear power plants.
Al Melvin is recklessly ignoring risk in hot pursuit of profit which he says will make Arizona one of the “richest” or possibly the “richest” state in the union. It’s easy to profit when the U.S. government subsidizes construction and insures risk. The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act of 1957 establishes a no-fault insurance type system that would have the taxpayers pay claims above $10 billion. Say No More Nuclear Power Plants for Arizona.
