“Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer”

I’m sure many of the readers of NEI Nuclear Notes already know what I’m going to discuss just by reading the title of this post. For those who don’t know, I plan to take time this week to bore in and give my thoughts on Helen Caldicott’s new book, “Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer.” This is great timing because she will be in D.C. this week for part of her book tour.

To start off her book, she acknowledged many of the usual anti-nuclear suspects. Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen and Philip Smith are two whom we have discussed many times on this blog with regards to their lifecycle emissions analysis. David Lochbaum was cited many times throughout the book, as he has been critical of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the nuclear industry. Amory Lovins was all over this book with his solutions of using energy efficiency, renewables and decentralization. And of course, we can’t forget one of our favorite anti-nuclear critics who occasionally stirs up debate on this blog, Paul Gunter, of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Let me begin this series of posts with some general thoughts I’ve had about the book. First, this book could almost convince uninformed readers that nuclear power really is not the answer. There were several times in the book that if I didn’t know anything about the situation I would want to take a stick to the nuclear industry, beat it down and blame it for everything.

However, that was far from what I felt. As I read through it, I kept red sticky notes on every page that I had a problem with. As you can imagine, by the end of the book it was filled with red.

Throughout the book, the main topic Caldicott seemed really bent on was the relationship of nuclear power to nuclear weapons. It does make sense, as she has spent much of her time fighting against nuclear weapons, for which she should be commended.

One thing that kept popping up in my mind was that I couldn’t find one mention of a positive aspect of nuclear power. If I were undecided about nuclear power, I would want to see the pros and cons of every issue. Instead, this book offers only the cons. If Dr. Caldicott is trying to appeal to the undecideds, I’m sure many of them became much more skeptical of the anti-nuclear movement after this book. It is more of a reference for those who already are against nuclear power.

During the series of posts this week, I plan to get into to all of those red sticky notes, offer my thoughts and ask readers for their thoughts. I do ask one thing, though, and that is that we debate the issues and keep it clean. Stay tuned for more.

UPDATE FROM THE EDITOR: Welcome to readers of Tim Blair. David has been continuing his series all this week. His followup posts are linked below:

Dr. Caldicott vs. Nuclear Power – Round One

Dr. Caldicott vs. Nuclear Power - Round Two

Dr. Caldicott vs. Nuclear Power - Round Three

Dr. Caldicott vs. Nuclear Power - Rounds Four and Five

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Electricity, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics, Helen Caldicott