Atomic Green
Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, writes a really well-informed article on the role of nuclear power.
The 600-plus coal-fired plants emit nearly 2 billion tons of CO2annually — the equivalent of the exhaust from about 300 million automobiles. In addition, the Clean Air Council reports that coal plants are responsible for 64 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions, 26 percent of nitrous oxides and 33 percent of mercury emissions. These pollutants are eroding the health of our environment, producing acid rain, smog, respiratory illness and mercury contamination.
Meanwhile, the 103 nuclear plants operating in the United States effectively avoid the release of 700 million tons of CO2emissions annually — the equivalent of the exhaust from more than 100 million automobiles. Imagine if the ratio of coal to nuclear were reversed so that only 20 percent of our electricity was generated from coal and 60 percent from nuclear. This would go a long way toward cleaning the air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Every responsible environmentalist should support a move in that direction.
April 19th, 2006 at 8:09 am
I read that this guy is a paid industry lobbyist now. I don’t know if that’s true, but it might bear some investigation. The discussion on the Slassdot topic was really interesting for this article.
April 19th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Slashdot talked about it? I feel dirty for talking about the same thing as them.
April 19th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
I think Dr. Moore has worked for NEI, with is the US nuclear lobbying group. I too work in nuclear power, but I’m lobbying not for nuclear power, but just for a rational discussion of energy issues, versus the combination of fear (radiation) and dreaming (renewables can quickly be scaled up) we have now.
You might be interested to know that Stewart Brand, the founder of The Whole Earth Catalog mentioned in the linked article above, has also endorsed a techno-thriller novel of nuclear power by a longtime industry insider (me). This story serves as a lay person’s guide to the good and the bad of this power source. (There’s plenty of both.) The book is available at no cost to readers at http://RadDecision.blogspot.com – and they seem to like it, judging from their comments on the homepage.