The Cost of Nuclear
Dear EcoNews,
I appreciated Dan Sealy’s letter, “Nuclear and Deep Ecology“, in the May issue of EcoNews. Having worked on nuclear issues as a lobbyist for Kansas Natural Resource Council in the Kansas state legislature some time ago, I would like to add to Dan’s list of overlooked costs. Back in the early 80s, Kansas was in the process of constructing the very large Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant. Our leading argument in opposition was that decommissioning costs are never figured into the overall cost of a nuclear power plant. Those significant costs, (potentially larger than construction costs) when they become due some 30 years down the line, are generally dumped on the rate payers. I believe the Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant is one of the first in the country slated for decommissioning and the process is going poorly. Decommissioning and cleanup of the world’s nuclear power plants will never be done completely. Another hideous legacy of the Anthropocene.
– Roland Wiebe, Westhaven
Productive Sabotage
Dear Econews,
Recent issues of Econews report widening community divisions from climate chaos and the economic fallout following millions of epidemic fatalities, business closures and diminishing opportunities.
While the 1918 epidemic culminated in worldwide depression, fascism and WWlI, today’s post-COVID depression, fascist attacks on the capitol and nuclear brinkmanship, are joined by climate chaos impacting hundreds of millions and causing public desperation and distractions exploited by opportunists, regardless of the era, or the consequences.
For example, opportunists destroying carbon-sequestering forests to produce wood-pellets for export (producing more carbon than coal); haphazard land use impairing our rivers and tributaries and collapsing biodiversity; farmed fish threatening biological contamination of ocean food sources, diverting diminishing fresh water needed to maintain natural fisheries; native land exploited for minerals and energy to support unsustainable lifestyles; investor’s ongoing sprawl (“McKay Ranch” subdivision); and another $80 million retirement resort (“Life Plan Humboldt”), diverting public and private investments while Humboldt’s growing elderly population cannot afford basic necessities.
In a dilemma worthy of Solomon, progress is always resisted and resented by vested interest in the old way of doing things no matter how beneficial, essential or welcomed by the people as a whole, preventing the organization of knowledge, time, energy, materials, land, housing, healthcare, labor, etc., where it’s most needed, illustrating, once again, that enduring reform must come from millions of acts of productive sabotage.
Whether it’s electing representatives advocating for fees on rentals and fines on vacant buildings, storefronts and parking lots (to fund affordable housing matching grants); securing public and private investments for neighborhood solar or hydrogen energy generation; starting a fund to return Eureka’s efficient trolley system; purchasing peddle-assist “pod-bikes” for daily commutes; or expressing public opposition to opportunist’s destructive projects; everyone has a role ensuring community focus on progressive adaptation to nature’s enforcement of change.
– George Clark, Eureka