Skip to main content

Same Old Anti-Nukes, Same Old Song and Dance

By Eric McErlain
In today's Clarion Ledger, anti-nuclear activist Ruth Pullen trots out all the old familiar tropes about why America should reject expansion of nuclear energy. There are plenty of things to quibble with, but there's one particular passage that caught my attention:
Current studies indicate increased cancers and infant mortality in the vicinity of nuclear plants . . .
Now, as we saw on Friday, we're more than prepared to counter arguments like this one that have no scientific basis whatsover, and how anti-nukes deliberately juggle and distort data in such a way that would get a college freshman thrown out of Econ 101. Moreover, in the case we covered last week, Joseph Mangano's arguments have been consistently rejected by any and all public health agencies that ever reviewed them.

A number of thoughts struck me while reading: First, I couldn't help but notice the paucity of actual facts and figures. Here we are, more than a decade into the age of the Internet. Pullen was able to have these claim published in a daily newspaper, yet didn't provide a link to an online source that includes the data that buttresses her claim.

It's more than likely that such an online source doesn't exist. No matter, but when it comes to public debate, there should be a more rigorous burden of proof applied.

So here's the challenge to Ms. Pullen: Where's the data beef in this air sandwich?

UPDATE: Thanks to Alan Smith at Entergy for passing along a Public Citizen fact sheet that was apparently the source for the op ed piece. We're looking it over right now.

Technorati tags: , , , , ,

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday Update

By
From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

By
Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...
23 comments
Read more

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more