A Nuclear Energy Renaissance Wouldn't Solve Our Problems, But It Would Rip Us Off

By Christian Parenti, The Nation
Posted on May 6, 2008, Printed on May 6, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/84042/

If you listen to the rhetoric, nuclear power is back. Smashing atoms will replace burning carbon-based coal, gas and oil. In the face of a disaster movie-like future of runaway climate change -- bringing drought, floods, famine and social breakdown -- carbon-free nukes are cast as the deus ex machina to save us at the last minute.

Even a few greens support nuclear power -- most famously James Lovelock, father of the Gaia theory. In the popular press, discussion of nuclear energy is dominated by its boosters, thanks in part to sophisticated industry PR.