Show your solidarity against new nuclear power plants in Wisconsin by joining the protest today at 12:30 p.m. in Library Mall.
The protest, sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility, supports to a 25-year-old law the State Assembly voted to rescind in February. The law prohibits the construction of a new nuclear plant in Wisconsin unless there is a place to dispose of its radioactive waste and the plant is the best economic alternative for power production. The repeal still has to go to the Senate and the governor. If it is passed any proposed nuclear plant potentially does not need to meet either qualification.
Nuclear power advocates claim waste will be brought to storage in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. However, the Yucca Mountain proposal is problematic. First, if Yucca Mountain is chosen as a waste site, it will eventually fill up, and the shores along the Wolf River could begin to house radioactive, since it tops the federal list of possible waste sites. Radioactive waste stays volatile for tens of thousands of years, potentially altering the genetic makeup of our ecosystem. It is highly irresponsible to destroy the environment for our children, grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren so we can power more appliances.
Second, shipping nuclear waste across the country for the next 30 years, until Yucca Mountain is up to its brim in nuclear waste, leaves America highly vulnerable to terrorist attack. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has indicated that nuclear plants are a potential terrorist target. A new nuclear plant means a new threat.
Nuclear power proponents also say that nuclear power is more cost-effective than other types of energy. This claim is questionable-why would the house repeal a law that calls for a ban on nuclear plants unless they are economical, if nuclear plants were already more economical than other forms of energy? According to a 2001 U.S. Department of Energy report, nuclear fission is more expensive per kilowatt hour than coal, natural gas and wind energy. Only solar photovoltaic energy costs more than nuclear fission.
The most important reason to oppose nuclear energy is because a new nuclear plant is a step away from green energy. Citizens should be concerned with conserving energy, not creating more energy by harming the environment. Wisconsin has not built a nuclear plant in the last 25 years, and we should pride outselves on that.
