Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2YmwdF43EI

By Chuck Bayton

A generation has passed since a nuclear power reactor at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania partly melted down.  Since then, no new reactors have been built in the United States, and for most of that time none were proposed.

But now there is a flurry of proposals.  We hear talk of a “nuclear renaissance.”  Key to a well-funded industry campaign to bring this to Wisconsin is an effort to weaken or repeal §196.493 of the Wisconsin Statutes.  That 1983 law requires that no new nuclear power station can be built here unless

1)  there is a licensed facility to permanently dispose of Wisconsin’s high-level nuclear waste (spent reactor fuel), and

2)  nuclear power is “economically advantageous” to Wisconsin electric customers.

While the nuclear power lobby speaks of a Wisconsin “moratorium” or “ban” on nuclear reactor construction, Wisconsin’s law does not prohibit reactor construction, not even temporarily.  The two restrictions in §196.493 would be no obstacle to new reactors if industry claims that nuclear power is clean, safe, and affordable were true.

But the nuclear lobby may well get its way, because it has deep pockets, and its efforts are now heavily concentrated on Wisconsin.

Industry’s own figures say a new reactor in the US would cost $6 billion or more.  If you plan to build something controversial and that big, might you commit at least 1¢ to lobbying for every $100 in your budget?  That amounts to more than $600,000 per reactor, and industry talk of a favorable impact on world climate is silly unless they plan to build dozens or more.

Arguing against Wisconsin’s waste disposal requirement, the nuclear lobby claims that the French now “recycle” their nuclear waste, that long-term waste storage at reactor sites is safe, or that we needn’t worry because a solution to the waste problem will soon be found.

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