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I’ll Follow You
By David Glenn Cox
American politicians like to pretend that America leads the world in all categories. It’s a simple appeal to blind nationalism as the crowd starts to chant, "we’re number one!" There was a time when America did lead the world in most categories, but after thirty years of Republican administrations and Congresses, those days are fading history, as much of the Democratic Party have become complicit with the Republicans.
Our energy troubles of late draw a sharp focus; it was Jimmy Carter who called for alternative energy measures and Ronald Reagan who opposed them. It was Jimmy Carter who called for higher CAFÉ standards and George W. Bush who opposed them. It was Jimmy Carter who built the research facilities to develop “Clean Coal” and all of the Republicans love to talk about clean coal the same way nerds at a Star Trek convention like to talk about Klingons. And for the same reason, there’s no such thing.
Coal as an energy source is cheap but dirty, clean coal as an energy source is expensive. The coal must be processed twice, once to remove and collect the sulfur. And again as it's burned to collect the massive amounts of CO2 which must then be disposed of. America's coal industry is old and well-entrenched and very rich. They have many friends in Congress and they are lobbying very hard to have that white-haired gentleman placed in the White House. Clean coal is a label, a lobbying campaign, as long as they can promote “Clean Coal,” they can continue to their sell dirty coal. Their argument is that we have to! America needs the energy!
The Republicans have always glanced with a wary eye at the French. After all, they allow a Socialist Party, don’t they? They wouldn’t join NATO, would they? They wouldn’t blindly support our invasion of Iraq, would they? Why, the outrage! We’ll show them, from now on we’ll call them Freedom fries and Freedom toast! Makes you wonder how, with minds like that, America shouldn’t lead the world. They got the dumb part right, Freedumb fries. But everything in France is inferior, they maintain, except nuclear power. The Republicans are certain that the French have got the right idea there! John McCain wants to build as many as 200 new nuclear plants all across the United States and why not. The French do it?
The French operate 59 nuclear reactors nationwide, barely more than a fourth of the number that McCain wants to add to America's nuclear industry. So if the French have got the handle on this, shall we do this just as the French do? The Électricité de France is the main supplier of power and it was founded when the French, under Communist Minister Marcel Paul, pushed for the nationalization of the French power industry. Sounds like a good idea to me; you think John McCain will go for it?
The French use only one design for all their nuclear plants. In America it’s a free for all, Capitalism you know. The French nuclear engineers are trained nationally and because of the standardized design are fully equipped to work at any plant nationwide. In America, it is the responsibility of each plant operator to train their employees, so in Alabama they are left to be trained by Alabama Power.
To hear the Republicans and the media tell it, French nuclear power has been the greatest success since, well, freedom fries! Just like clean coal, they paint a picture without the details. The French have the same problems with nuclear waste that we have here in America; no one wants it in their back yard. The French plan, much like the American plan, was to build a repository out in a rural area. But to the rural French the idea smacked of Parisians dumping their garbage on their rural countrymen. Rather than a dump, the French developed a storage facility where the waste is accessible. The national government has built laboratories to study possible decontamination processes and to monitor the waste. You think John McCain would go for that? I mean, after all he is such a huge admirer of French nuclear technology.
Most of the French reactors were built in the 1970’s and time marches on. The French monitoring body, Criirad, has reported in recent months four separate incidents involving leaks at French nuclear facilities. There has also been a 10-fold increase in the number of incidents reported by people working in the French nuclear power industry. Criirad director Corinne Castanier said, "This type of contamination is a recurring problem. But that many people in such a short period of time, this worries us."
Two weeks after a leak had forced the Tricastin facility, in southern France, to shut down; around 100 employees were exposed to low dose radiation when another pipe burst. In July at a reactor in Avignon, a broken underground pipe leaked 30 cubic meters of fluid carrying unenriched uranium into local rivers. Authorities closed the rivers to water sports and fishing as the environmental minister ordered all French reactor operators to investigate for possible similar leakage.
Two weeks later, another reactor in France leaked an undetermined amount of “liquid” carrying enriched uranium. On the same day, 15 workers at the Saint Albans reactor were exposed to traces of radioactive elements. Given that John McCain isn’t sure how many houses he owns, I wonder if he knows about these problems in the French nuclear industry? An industry that he praises to the heavens, an industry that backs his campaign heavily.
America's awakening to its energy dependence has encouraged the Republicans to reach into their bag and pull out a host of bad ideas, none worse than nuclear power. There is a very vivid and reasonable cause for America turning its back on nuclear power. While it sounds like a panacea and a cure-all, the devil is in the details. So while McCain tours oil platforms to advocate for more coastal oil drilling, perhaps he would like to advocate for nuclear power at the front door of the Three Mile Island plant, in front of its sealed reactor building. A reactor that will remain sealed for thousands of years. America was on the brink of a disaster and escaped by a hair's breadth. In Chernobyl the world was on the brink and escaped. Had that reactor core melted down through the few remaining inches of concrete and into the ground water, it would have contaminated an area larger than the nation of France. Had the aircraft that struck the World Trade Center struck the Indian Point nuclear reactor instead, it could have depopulated New York and New England.
A bad idea, an idea whose time has come and gone. When Ozzie and Harriet were America’s darlings, nuclear energy seemed like the perfect solution, but now we know better. The potential problems outweigh the benefits, temporary energy and permanent radioactivity. Well, not permanent really, just for a few thousand years, and we can trust our politicians to do the right thing and protect us now, can’t we? I’m sure John McCain is right on top of it. He was a war hero, you know!
Nuclear waste is an unresolved issue which, to date, no country has solved. It is, in a sense, what’s under the flashers coat of the nuclear industry. Could this issue strike down France's uniquely successful nuclear program? France's politicians and technocrats are in no doubt. If France is unable to solve this issue, then "I do not see how we can continue our nuclear program," said Claude Mandil, the General Director for Energy and Raw Materials at the Ministry of Industry. John McCain thinks 200 new reactors will be good for America, of course at age 72 long-term problems for McCain involve mainly his regularity.
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