Preventing Disasters With Safe and Clean Energy

Communicating with Nature

August 24, 2011

by Aggie Perilli

What We Know:

When Jimmy Carter was president, he had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. In 1977, the aware and responsive Carter predicted: “Unless profound changes are made to lower our consumption of fossil fuels…and use renewables like solar power, we may feel a mounting pressure to plunder our environment. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us but, if we fail to act quickly, it may.” With the exception of preventing war, Carter called our energy crisis “the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetime.”

New Jersey Democratic Representative Rush Holt called energy derived from both fossil fuels and nuclear power unsustainable and a growing health and safety threat. Worse than accidents, he cautioned that Iran and others may use nuclear technology to develop weapons. Holt proposed safe, farsighted energy policies that include a cap on greenhouse gas emissions; a realistically substantial investment in clean energy; and tax credits for solar, wind, geothermal and other safe and renewable technologies.

Following the Fukushima disaster, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) studied nuclear power safety in the United States and found 14 significant events or near misses in 12 states last year. Near misses raise the risk of accidents that can be lethal for workers, neighbors, and the environment. UCS said many of those near misses could have been avoided if reactor owners had corrected violations identified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) months and even years earlier. UCS urges reactor owners and NRC to eliminate lingering safety and security issues described as “accidents waiting to happen.”

The Physicians for Social Responsibility and 45 other national groups petitioned NRC “to suspend all licensing and activities at 21 proposed nuclear reactor sites in 15 states until after NRC completed a post-Fukushima reactor examination as thorough as that following the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island.” Moreover, petitioners asked NRC to responsibly supplement this life-saving investigation with that of a independent commission.

In March, German Chancellor Angela Merkel closed seven of her country’s oldest nuclear reactors and accelerated Germany’s conversion to clean energy. Italy began to phase out nuclear power after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, and closed its last reactor in 1990. This past June, more than 94 percent of Italy’s voters rejected the proposed resumption of nuclear power in favor of renewables such as solar and wind power.

Switzerland is phasing out nuclear power now. The first country to reportedly phase out nuclear power was Austria in 1978, followed by Sweden in 1980, then Italy in 1987, Belgium in 1999, and Germany in 2000. To further protect health and safety, Austria and Spain enacted laws that prohibit the construction of new nuclear power plants. As of June 2011, other countries completely opposed to nuclear power include Australia, Greece, Israel, New Zealand and Norway.

Some proponents of fossil fuels and nuclear energy claim it’s impossible to meet economic needs without compromising national security and destroying the regenerative organic environment that sustains us. Yet Utsira Islanders in Norway have been thriving off the grid for two years. One of the world’s first communities to achieve energy self-sufficiency, Utsira Islanders have combined wind power with hydrogen fuel and produced enough renewables to store energy and export their excess to the mainland.

“We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren,” Carter warned. It’s not too late to build a safe, clean-energy economy. As in Italy, it is up to voters to take the lead. Elect politicians who replace nuclear power and fossil fuels with safe and clean energy without delay. Meanwhile, hold reactor owners and NRC accountable for the strict enforcement of more farsighted regulations than those the United States relies on today. Last year, the President’s Cancer Panel, which included appointees of President George W. Bush, warned that today’s apathetic approach toward regulation will have far-reaching health consequences, especially for children.

Which politicians are replacing fossil fuels and nuclear power with safe and cost-effective renewables today?

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