Page 47 - Scrimshaw1979-80

Personel viewpoint Can we afford the alternatives? . ~. Dave Cleveland withstand a 747 crashing Into them? An earthquake? Nuclear For several years we have been plants are. Is this an argument suffering the effects of a world against hydroelectric power? wide depletion of energy resour- Hardly. ces. The supplies of oil and natural What about the genepool; are we gas have been failing while the destroying our race? No! We demands have been rising. Prices receive many times more have responded with vigorous ln. radiation from such things as x. creases. Their Is no Indication that rays, and also from the sun Itself. any of these longrun trends will be Wastes are a more difficult reversed. problem, but geologically quiet How has America responded to salt mines, or even the Marianas this energy .-::rlsls?With calls for Trench can provide the answer. the banning of rccreer power as an Energy generation must be electrical generating source. considered In context. The Nuclear power Is considered alternatives to nuclear power are hazardous to locals through ac. conservation, solar energy, and ctdents. to the gene pool through coal. Coal Is not a pleasant tow-level exposure, and to future' alternative. A major portion of our generations through Its waste. But ccet-pcwered industry Is con- the worst nuclear accident to date centretee in theMld·west. Directly has been the one at Three Mile downwind from this region are the Island. The hazard to the local Adirondack Mountains of Northern .peputetton from the radiation New York. In the last ten years, released there Is small compared years In which we have had to the daily hazard to millions pollution controls, 40 percent of the across the country from the cer. Adirondack lakes have become so clnogens (cancer-causing 'agents) ac'idlc that they have suffered put out by ceal-pcwered plants. severe population decreases. And these carcinogen releases Many of them are now uninhabited aren't accidents. by plants or animals. The acids are We fear some unexpected, sulpher compounds, and their almost impossible accident to source is the burning of high strike and kill tens of thousands. sulpher coal. Suchan accident is possible. But Is Conservation Is a nicer idea. We It an argument against nuclear waste an awful lot of energy. But If power? How many of our It were easy to conserve, then we hydroelectric dams, or even would be doing It already. Any reservoirs, have people living more gains will be difficult and below them? Are they built to expensive, and the gains achievable are limited. An ln- dustrlal economy requires a great deal of energy. The only way to should shelve nukes- reduce our energy use significantly Is to reduce luxurIes, an action which requires the kind of pence-state I wouldn't want to live In. path of safe energy and self- potential risk. Nuclear energy falls, so does man. Solar energy can't yet do the Job: sufficiency. carries a great potential danger, To develop this source, the A year ago I would have dismissed The nuclear path is strewn with for man is experlementlng with the government must sponsor more this by saying the most effeclent lingering doubts about sufficient basic building block of the universe solar research and development method of deriving energy from waste disposal, ethical con. without any awareness of the through grants. Solar technology sunlight Is stili photosynthesis. My who favors nuclear srderettcns. questions of safety, ultimate consequences. needsan investor to promote and statement is stili time. Solar elected In 1980." and very pragmatic economic Stressfnq America's energy develop the potential energy energy cannot now provide the yet overwhelming consideratio~s.· setr.suructeocv. any nuclear source, while providing some energy to meet our needs. But raises numerous Nuclear fission reactors proponent must consIder the Interim source of energy such as recent reports indicate that tm- for the thinking generate certain radioactive eventual sources of the uranium liquefied coal. provarnents in the production of wastes during their operation supply. Through a drastic, concerted silicon wafers may cut costs up to which can remain deadly for America's resources of uranium effort to change American's even one thenth of what it Is now. almost 250,000 years. Presently, are tlmited, and other nations dominant philosophy from "I Such a breakthrough would be these toxic substances are stored eventually could place us over a want" to "I need," our energy fantastic, but remember the word temporarily In specified areas, barrel, much as the Middle problems. can begin to be is may. It's not a good Idea to such as Barnwell, S.C., awaiting Eastern nations have. Nuclear remedied. depend on naturally unpredlcable an apparently non-existent energy cannot offer America This decision demands thus undependable scientific in· solution to the problem of their energy Independence,only another cooperation and. conservation, a novations and Inspirations. permanent .storeqe. Shoot If Into form of dependence. definite change from our present Nuclear power may not be ideal, space or bury It In the salt mtnes.. Economic considerations unveil gluHony, while a pro.alternatlve but it is the best of our various all the proposals exhibit some another flaw In the nuclear armor. president certainly could not hurt. energy generation alternatives. weakenss, so the waste Just sits, Once called an "economical and sits and sits. energy source," the "peaceful Phil's folly Ames-lee, notoriOUS for its atom" carries many unforseen and fromp.5 voracious appetite, quaffs oil and prohibitive costs for the Industry, "Christian Fundamentalists" From discussing the column (Of' gasoline by the millions of barrels, and ultimately for the consumer. charismatics, since they are with Phil I know that he did not cbnvecs to the ultimate con. Uranium prices soar while reactor lumped together) with the radical Intend If to have such a sequences of such gluHony. The components and construction costs right in politics. The eencfe stereotypical tone. But his same attltude pervades the rise. A single reactor may cost one claims," ... The .Christian Fun. recognition, near the end of the nuclear gamblt.·the short-term billion dollars today, a figure damentallsts have taken right· column as printed, that "there are gain seems to outweIgh the long· which rises daily. wing, in many cases ultra- moderates within the charismatic Hidden costs also arise, -tn- conservative views in virtually all movement," comes a bit late to elS;:~:~::;n:I~:~~rc:s te~ ~:~u~e the electricity now, cludlng waste transport-storage of the major issues." There may be balance the effect of the column's I distribution. Supplies while saddling our grandchildren and decommissioning costs. After many politically conservative bulk. 25-40years, a reactor reaches its consumption rlses..and and theirs with the burdensome maximum life expectancy. Costs charismatics (or Fu n- Phil's concern about the demand that we leg~cy of nuctear ~aste. Is It for the disassembly and decon- damentalists), but there are also separation of church and state and was initially hailed as ethl~al for us to enroy the ep- tamination originally were many charismatics who are the dangers presented by self- ,cleanenergysource?" pealing be~~flts of energy now, overlooked, and now they surface concerned with issueof civil rights appointed messiahs is weil taken, I the growth of the while reailz!ng that our sett-m- and sccte! justice usually and we should share It. If people to haunt the dctter-cocnsctous Iindus:~h sin~ee19~'ot~~ ~~~t~~~~r ;~~e~~;e only toxic economist. associated with a liberal are abusing religion for political viewpoint. Later in the article Phil conclude that the Undeniable threats to the en- This brief glance should writes," The teet is that the power we should be alert to them. "safe atom" must be vtronment exist when a reactor is dissuade America from taking the (charismatic) movement is Certalnlv there are charlatans and other "false prophets" all over the path, nuclear while carefully in operation, as the Three Mile becoming increasingly dominated American scene. But I close with came perilously close to demon- considering the alternative path of strating. Man, in his state of Im- liquefied coal, conservation, and by the reactionary element." one question: Who among us has perfection, must realize certain solar energy. Maybe some groups are, but I the ability to tell the reallrom the tlmitations to his technology. The The sun offers a sorce of energy seriously question whether the lake by a superficial glance. and movement as a whole is thus greater the potential danger in a that will remain for the entirety of how many eeccte take the trouble 10look closely? certain creation, the qreater the man's existence, tor when the sun "dominated."