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GLOWING ENDORSEMENT OF NUCLEAR POWER IGNORES TRUE COSTS, MISSED OPPORTUNITIES Statement of Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club "President Bush's appearance today at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant demonstrates that his administration is more beholden to industry friends than to the public good. "The Bush administration and its allies in Congress have painted a glowing picture of nuclear power to justify billions of dollars in new taxpayer subsidies for the industry. In reality, nuclear power poses a major security risk and produces a radioactive waste, which we have no way to store safely over the long term. It also makes absolutely no sense to waste tax dollars on new power plants when we have not secured or cleaned up the waste from existing nuclear power plants. "Not only is nuclear energy dangerous, it is prohibitively expensive. The huge safety risks associated with nuclear facilities make them impossible to insure, which is why the industry wants taxpayers to pay all liability costs. And then there is the high cost of decommissioning nuclear power plants. Radioactive waste needs to be secured and stored for 10,000 years. Anyone who thinks nuclear power is a silver bullet is really just passing the buck to future generations. "Rather than spending billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize a very expensive and unsafe form of energy, America should be investing in technologies that improve efficiency and tap renewable resources like wind and solar power. Every dollar invested in renewables and efficiency makes American more secure without making our families less safe or saddling future generations with debt. "The solutions are there. What's missing is the leadership." ### |
