Sooner or later -- if it hasn't happened already -- someone is going to write the words "the ongoing nuclear incident at the Fukushima power plant is producing fallout of a non-nuclear sort." There ya go, pun committed. You don't have to do it now. The nuclear industry and their apologists are trying their damnedest -- despite all evidence to the contrary -- to convince everyone that nuclear power is safe. Their best defense, at this point, is the "it's not as bad as Chernobyl" line. This is like appearing in court and arguing your innocence based on the fact that you aren't Jeffrey Dahmer. It's not extremely convincing because it's not remotely logical -- especially if you're the second worst serial killer in history.And that's the best parallel -- remove Chernobyl and Fukushima is the worst nuclear plant incident in history. And it puts a crimp in nuke backers' plans.
It was going to work like this: spurred on by fears of global warming and high oil prices (as if power plants run on gas), the world was poised to begin what many called the "nuclear renaissance," where extremely complex triumphs of technology would soon be boiling water all over the world (that's all a nuclear plant does, by the way; run a boiler to turn an axle -- it's basically a steam engine). But if the prospect of radioactive tea kettles whistling from Des Moines to New Delhi seemed like a tolerable idea before, it's become a lot less attractive now...[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
