Another Astonishing Holiday No New Nukes Victory

[bananas]

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2010/1866

Harvey Wasserman
Another astonishing holiday no new nukes victory
December 23, 2010

The atomic energy industry has suffered another astonishing defeat. Because of it, 2010 again left the "nuclear renaissance" in the Dark Age that defines the technology.

But an Armageddon-style battle looms when Congress returns next year.

<snip>

Most importantly, advances in green technologies are leaving atomic power in the dust. Numerous new studies now show it is significantly cheaper to build new generating capacity with photovoltaics, wind and other renewable Solartopian sources than to go nuclear. That gap will only grow in the coming years.

<snip>

But grassroots activists from around the nation flooded Congress and White House with at least 15,000 calls and letters.

Amidst the chaos of the lame duck session, the Omnibus bill fell by the wayside. Yet another CR emerged, this one stripped of earmarks---including all money for new nuke guarantees.

Thus the industry was once again shut out. In the past decade it has spent more than $640 million lobbying for federal handouts.

<snip>

So the battle will resume in January, with the industry again selling its "renaissance" as a done deal. But if the grassroots environmental movement can keep up the pressure, and the revolution in green power proceeds, nuclear power may just be done, period.

--
Harvey Wasserman edits http://www.nukefree.org; his Solartopia!, as sung by Pete Seeger, is at http://www.solartopia.org.

:applause:

[Fledermaus]

1. Fifty-three years after the first commercial reactor opened

Fifty-three years after the first commercial reactor opened at Shippingport, Pennsylvania, no private funders will step forward to pay for a "new generation" of nukes.