Thursday, January 19, 2012

Wall Street Journal Propaganda


The journal is at it again.

The journal has been unable to describe the reality of the Fukushima situation, but instead has relied on the phrase "partial melt-down" to describe the full melt-throughs that have occurred at the plant in at least 2 of the reactors

See my past post about their propaganda through semantics http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/glaring-propaganda-in-wall-street.html

Today they have an editorial titled "Small is Beautiful--So Go Nuclear" written by a senior fellow, a Mr. Bryce, at the Manhattan Institute. (1/19/2012 page A15).

Mr. Bryce simultaneously attacks organic farming and wind power, while advocating for nuclear.

He dismisses the problem of long-term storage of spent fuel rods by stating: "True, radioactive waste is toxic and long-lived, but it can be stored safely. France produces about  80% of its electricity from nuclear fission, and all of its high-level waste is stored in a single building the size of a soccer field."

This is the most absurd evidence I've ever seen offered to support the purported safety of nuclear waste storage.

Nuclear waste remains contaminated for tens of thousands of years. How long does a building last?

I shall not even waste time deconstructing this ridiculous argument.

Furthermore, Mr. Bryce says nothing about the never-ending releases of tritium and other radionuclides from normally operating nuclear plants.

I will be posting more on tritium soon, but let it suffice for now to state that tritium is a danger to public health because it ends up in water supplies and in the air that we breathe.

Although municipal water companies test for tritium in drinking water (or the federal government does it for them), tritium can contaminate ground water, precipitation, swimming pools, and reservoirs used for recreation. 

75 percent of nuke sites have leaked tritium  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.gazettenet.com/2011/06/17/75-percent-of-nuke-sites-have-leaked-tritium

Mr. Bryce also says nothing about the extensive and polluting carbon infrastructure required to mine and process the uranium used in nuclear fuel rods, which has been documented by Dr. Helen Caldicott.

Mr. Bryce fails to mention that uranium of sufficient quality to be used in nuclear fuel is becoming scarce, fostering dependence upon MOX, plutonium "enriched" fuel, which is more dangerous.

Somebody ought to investigate where Mr. Murdoch's energy investment profile. He has a history of promoting energy stories that serve his interests
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/11/1052681/-The-Murdoch-energy-lie-that-went-around-the-world

It is not unusual for media conglomerates to be governed by equity firms with investments in energy. Sometimes the ownership structure is obvious. For instance, CBS is owned by Westinghouse, a firm heavily invested in the nuclear industry
http://www.whoownsthenews.com/

I wouldn't be surprised if Murdoch's investment ties dictate what can and cannot appear in the WSJ.



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