Nuclear power: The Doomsday Machine A BOOK ENTITLED The Doomsday Machine leaves little room for doubt in readers’ minds about the two authors’ views on nuclear power. But just in case you missed the point, social scientist Martin Cohen and Andrew McKillop, an energy economist, add in capital letters on the cover: ‘The high price of nuclear energy, the world’s most dangerous fuel.’ The nuclear industry believes it will help stave off the threat of climate change, but a new book says that is a pipe dream. The authors set about debunking what they call the eight myths of nuclear power. Perhaps the most telling argument is that nuclear energy is just too expensive to be a rational choice for electricity production. Cohen and McKillop argue that no other industry gets the extraordinary level of subsidy given by governments to atomic power. All governments guarantee free insurance against catastrophic accidents and all provide a taxpayer-funded or heavily subsidised disposal service for nuclear waste — although the authors point out that most countries simply store their most dangerous radioactive garbage, since they have no safe way of disposing of it. It should be compulsory reading for the many politicians who still seem to be seduced by the nuclear dream without apparently ever having given the subject five minutes of proper scrutiny. tinyurl/l2hod3k
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 09:51:03 +0000
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