Environment:

Nuclear Power

It is time to end the use of nuclear power in the United States. Nuclear energy is too dangerous, too inefficient, too costly, and poses too many long-term hazards.

Rather than learning from Chernobyl, the U.S. nuclear industry argues that this kind of accident could not happen here. In fact, a nuclear accident could occur at a U.S. power plant that would release radiation comparable to that released in Chernobyl. U.S. reactors are much more dangerous than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the nuclear industry suggest. At least five reactors in this country have experienced partial core-melt accidents. Aside from catastrophic accidents, reactors are prone to numerous small accidents, as well as “routine” releases of small amounts of radioactivity.

Reactors also produce high-level radioactive wastes with intractable storage problems. High-level nuclear waste will be hazardous for more than 200,000 years—longer than our ability to isolate it from the biosphere. It is technologically impossible and scientifically irresponsible to ‘dispose’ of nuclear waste. Even attempts to dispose of low-level radioactive waste have failed. Every low-level radioactive waste dump in this country leaks.

The Department of Energy is considering Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a site for “permanent disposal.” A leak could contaminate the groundwater beneath the Mountain and jeopardize the health of nearby residents. An earthquake in the area (and since 1976 there have been hundreds of serious seismic events within a 50-mile radius) could cause a rise in groundwater levels that would flood the repository. If the Yucca Mountain site is approved, waste will be transported there through 43 states, past the homes, workplaces and schools of 50 million Americans. The Department of Energy estimates that at least 50 and as many as 310 accidents would occur. An Energy Department study found that a severe accident in a rural area could contaminate a 42-square-mile area, require over a year to “clean up”, and cost $620 million.

We should:

· Phase out commercial nuclear reactors within five years, and set a timetable for phasing out other dangerous nuclear technologies, , nuclear-waste incinerators, food irradiation and all military and commercial uses of depleted uranium.

· Ban long-distance transport of high-level nuclear waste.

· Assure that stored nuclear waste is continuously monitored, with public access to monitoring data, unless and until a method can be found to assure its isolation from the biosphere for the duration of its hazardous life. The government should not relieve companies that generate nuclear waste from their responsibility for its dangers.

· Redirect federal funding from nuclear energy research to renewable energy technology.

· Stop federal government promotion of nuclear energy, and U.S. companies selling nuclear technology, internationally.