Back in February, I first mentioned that Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, would be addressing the 2006 Nuclear Energy Assembly in San Francisco, and now I'm finally able to share the video of his speech with you.
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...
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Just a note on Brand's point regarding proliferation:
Brand makes his February 2006 pitch in the heat of the forging the India-US nuclear technology deal which intensifies and further destablizes the Pakistan/India nuclear arms race.
The Bush Administration in cutting this deal to help his "friends" in the nuclear industry has undermined and destabilized the NPT.
Sorry Stewart, but reality once again steps in on your dream where a "preponderance of evidence" shows that the spread of commercial nuclear technology simultaneous provides the building blocks for both the horizontal (number of possessors) and vertical (number of weapons) proliferation of the nuclear arms race.
The "finessing" of such a foundational issue, as Brands puts it, and is dishonest and uncuts the credibility of the "Nuclear Brand" of the "Stewart's Environmental Classification System."
As my daddy used to say "its like trying to put wings on a frog so he doesn't have to bump his ass."
Nuclear weapons and nuclear power are just the different sides to the same coin.
I concur the "abrupt climate change" is becoming ever more a concern. That's all the more reason why we dont want to waste more precious time and resource on this already demonstrated failed technology.
If you commercialize MOX and HEU for reactor fuel its incentive (or excuse) to put more weapons grade material into the production pipe line for more sophisticated bombs, not less. Simple law of supply and demand.
No enforcement to the NPT is a serious erosion and nuclear weapons will proliferate both in number of possessors and number of weapons.
Flash points for nuclear war like Kashmir are growing. Providing more nuclear technology pours fuel on the flames on these rivalries bringing the world closer to triggering nuclear war.