Monday, April 23, 2007
Can't Be Trusted
When all the arguing over nuclear power is said and done--when all the radioactive dustup has settled--the bottom line is that the nuclear industry (including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has been a boondoggle of such mammoth proportion that there is simply no way to keep white collar crime away from it. And in the end, that is precisely what will lead us to not just another Three-Mile Island, but to Chernobyl--American style. If we let them.
The Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) $7 billion nuclear plant fiasco of the 1970s may be the best known example of shoddy construction, inadequate oversight, and NRC coverup of quality-control fraud, but it is only one of many examples across the country that combine to create a notorious track record that should make even the most gullible among us skeptical about trusting these shifty no-counts with our money, let alone our lives.
For those who'd like to learn more about how the citizens of Washington state organized to defeat the industry and the federal agencies that conspired to defraud them, this In Context article serves as a primer on organizing against nuclear power. Bad ideas never die, but we can prevent them from becoming our worst nightmares.
The Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) $7 billion nuclear plant fiasco of the 1970s may be the best known example of shoddy construction, inadequate oversight, and NRC coverup of quality-control fraud, but it is only one of many examples across the country that combine to create a notorious track record that should make even the most gullible among us skeptical about trusting these shifty no-counts with our money, let alone our lives.
For those who'd like to learn more about how the citizens of Washington state organized to defeat the industry and the federal agencies that conspired to defraud them, this In Context article serves as a primer on organizing against nuclear power. Bad ideas never die, but we can prevent them from becoming our worst nightmares.
