Pay for play in the nuclear industry socializes costs, privatizes profits, and individualizes the hazards from radioactive emissions and waste.
But the Trump administration is ready to play:
Michael Rothfeld,Rebecca Ballhaus and Joe Palazzolo (2018, August 2). Top Trump Donor Agreed to Pay Michael Cohen $10 Million for Nuclear Project Push. The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-trump-donor-agreed-to-pay-michael-cohen-10-million-for-nuclear-project-push-sources-say-1533245330
A major donor to President Trump agreed to pay $10 million to the president’s then-personal attorney if he successfully helped obtain funding for a nuclear-power project, including a $5 billion loan from the U.S. government, according to people familiar with the matter.The donor, Franklin L. Haney, gave the contract to Trump attorney Michael Chen in early April to assist his efforts to complete a pair of unfinished nuclear reactors in Alabama known as the Bellafonte Nuclear Power Plant.
A good editorial on why the Bellafonte Nuclear Power Plant privatizes profit while socializing costs can be found here: https://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/05/post_183.html?__vfz=rtw_top_pages%3D2244800012698
If you are wondering what I mean by individualization of hazards I am referring to the biological effects of the radioactive emissions from nuclear power plants.
Nuclear Power Plants produce atmospheric contamination and also contaminate ground water with tritium.
A recent study found mutated bugs near a Swiss power plant, illustration potential biological effects on wildlife:
Abnormal bugs around swiss nuclear power stationsDOI: 10.1002/cbdv.201800099 Chem. Biodiversity 2018, 15, e1800099 © 2018 The Authors Chemistry & Biodiversity Published by Wiley-VHCA AG http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/356082/27945359/1531314928280/Cornelia+Alfred+paper.pdf?token=ja257ffyLUBRYqZRID2vzp9LWOE%3D
In 2015 the US Nuclear Regulatory Agency cancelled a $8 million, multi-year National Academy of Science study aimed at examining cancer rates among people living within a 31-mile radius of seven nuclear power plants (Sforza, 2015). The study would have included an epidemiological component aimed at tracking cancer rates among people living within the radius and an exposure component aimed at gathering and map-plotting decades of plant data on release of radioactive gasses and liquids.
Read more about the biological risks of radiation for people, especially developing children, living in close proximity to nuclear power here:
Adrian Burton. (2009). CANCER: Childhood Leukemia and Proximity to Nuclear Power Plants. Environmental Health Perspectivesv.117(10); 2009 Oct PMC2897218 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2897218/Pay for play in nuclear is especially upsetting given the industry's high-risk operations and proven biological effects.
Why I changed my mind about nuclear power | Michael Shellenberger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciStnd9Y2ak
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with him but it shows a tred.
Thorium can give humanity clean, pollution free energy | Kirk Sorensen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kybenSq0KPo
I guess we will figure it out as we go along or become extinct. Either way it will cease to be a problem. What I notice is that "liberals" get their idealism mixed up with their practical and come to impractical solutions. I still say coal. I still think CO2 is a hoax. I still think the climate is primarily sun related. Being either Democrat or Republican, either conservative or liberal, is a waste of time and energy. As we know extinction is part of this planets life cycle. I am sure the dinosaurs also hoped for better than they got.