The Energy Future

Every time there's some huge calamity -- think Japan's nuclear crisis, the BP oil spill -- you always hear that somehow the operators and owners got all the regulatory permissions they needed and passed all the inspections, that all kinds of fancy plans were in place in case of an accident, that the threat to public health is low, yada yada yada. Yet, somehow, no one in Japan considered the effects of a tsunami in that quake prone country where the word tsunami comes from. Yesterday, a Japanese seismology expert said he warned years ago that the affected Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was vulnerable to a tsunami and no one paid any attention. Now we have trace amounts of radioacative iodine in waters in Massachusetts that have traveled all the way from Japan. Given the extraordinary consequences of a nuclear power plant disaster, can we really take any comfort in the fact that most of these plants have operated for decades without incident? And does anyone really believe the assurances of those in the industry who tell us everything is secure? Remember the BP plan for the Gulf that had provisions for protecting seals and walruses which can't be found anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico? That language was just cut and pasted from another "plan."

Policemen near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

You'd think we'd have learned by now that those with a vested interest -- including politicians who receive large donations from those interests -- have zero credibility when it comes to reassuring the public of anything related to those interests. Yet, we keep seeing the same sad scenario play out again and again.

A tsunami like the one that struck Japan earlier this month may be a one in a thousand year event, but there are plutonium isotopes that remain highly radioactive for 24,000 years. Do you like those odds?

Given the potentially catastrophic human and economic consequences of a nuclear power plant accident, and the known harmful effects of carbon on human health and climate, wouldn't it make sense to follow China's lead and seize the enormous economic opportunities of clean, renewables such as wind and solar? There's no free lunch when it comes to energy, but carbon and nuclear are the past: wind and solar have to be the future. CJG knows today's post wasn't funny, but there's nothing funny about what's happening in northeastern Japan at the moment.