Nuclear Power, LNG Have No Future in California

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

This originally appeared in the Ventura County Star. 

Here we go again. The issue of renewing the development of nuclear power is rearing its ugly head under the guise of making California the happiest, greenest place on Earth. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing this Disney-like scenario and it needs a reality check. Nuclear power simply has no future in California's new energy era.

If Californians give nuclear power a new lease on life, we will be moving in the wrong direction and relying on false promises. Today, even during a housing and economic slump, homeowners and businesses are turning to affordable, safe, clean and dependable energy in record numbers.

The governor believes nuclear power is the answer to global warming, but nothing could be further from the truth. Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous, too expensive and cannot exist without massive taxpayer subsidies.

A vicious pollution cycle also comes with the nuclear-power package. The production process of mining uranium to fuel nuclear plants requires massive, diesel-powered machinery that grossly pollutes the air. The mined uranium would then have to be shipped to the United States in large, diesel-powered ships and reprocessed into nuclear fuel in pollution-producing coke ovens.

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