The nuclear-power lobby—Subsidies, protests, lawsuits, and a billionaire’s bond election…

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http://sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=70184

The nuclear-power lobby

Subsidies, protests, lawsuits, and a billionaire’s bond election. Seems like a lot of trouble for last generation’s power gamble

By Greg Harman

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Two recent studies out of MIT can’t help but motivate nuclear proponents and detractors alike.

First, a report from MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change found that global warming will likely be far worse than has previously been reported, with temperatures rising as much as 9.3 degrees Fahrenheit this century. Only “rapid and massive action” can prevent the worst of climatic disruption.

Across the hallway, directors of the MIT Nuclear Fuel Cycle Study and the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research released an update to their oft-cited 2003 study, the Future of Nuclear Power. The paper concludes that the window of time in which the deployment of new nuclear power plants could help prevent worst-case warming scenarios is rapidly closing.

Of course, a nuclear-free future would suit the Goliad crowds trying to keep uranium miners out of their water table just fine. Mentioning the possibility of no new nuke plants in Andrews, however, could get you laid out in a shallow ravine. Residents there just approved a $75-million bond issue to fund the expansion of a radioactive waste dump owned by Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons.

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