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Under President Obama’s tenure, ending US dependence on fossil fuels has meant increasing dependence on nuclear energy. The EPA calls nuclear energy a source of “clean energy” and the Nuclear Energy Institute last week said US nuclear power plants are the “safest in the world.” However in the wake of Japan’s nuclear emergency Americans are now becoming familiar with the multi-step process required to generate nuclear energy and its inherent inefficiencies and dangers. Uranium, a major component in nuclear fuel rods, requires fossil fuels for the mining process. Nuclear power plants also require massive amounts of water. It is boiled off by the fuel rods to create energy and it is necessary to cool the reactors and prevent a meltdown. After water is used in a reactor it becomes toxic, polluted with heavy metals and salts, and cannot be simply released into waterways. There is also highly toxic radioactive waste to dispose of that according to the EPA, “remains radioactive for many thousands of years.” And, Japan’s emergency is proving that a natural disaster is capable of throwing the best laid safety plans for nuclear plants awry. While many are watching events unfold for lessons about safer nuclear energy, others are learning lessons about renewable energy resources. On Friday, Kelly Riggs of the Global Campaign for Climate Action called attention to wind farms in Japan. According to sources on the island nation their windmills not only survived the earthquake intact, but the majority kept spinning. The situation in Japan may force the US to take a second look at energy technologies using wind, solar, and water.

GUEST: Alice Slater, New York Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Coordinating Committee member of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

For more information, visit www.abolition2000.org and www.wagingpeace.org.

Read the reports about sustainable renewable energy here:

http://www.abolition2000.org/a2000-files/sustainable-now.pdf

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-path-to-sustainable-energy-by-2030