Javans fired up over reactor next to volcano - Guardian

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Javans fired up over reactor next to volcano

· Nuclear plant would be genocide, say campaigners
· International nuclear agency gives go ahead

Ian MacKinnon in Mount Muria, Indonesia
Thursday April 5, 2007
The Guardian

Indonesia is forging ahead with plans to build its first nuclear power plant
in the shadow of a dormant volcano, despite mounting opposition from
environmental groups who fear a catastrophe in a country beset by
earthquakes and natural disasters.

The favoured site on the north coast of Java is overlooked by the brooding
presence of 5,250ft (1,600-metre) Mount Muria. Critics are concerned that
the slightest tremor could trigger a fresh eruption and spell disaster for any
nuclear reactor in its path. The consequences of a radioactive leak, through
earthquake or eruption, could prove disastrous for Java - home to 100 million
Indonesians.

"A nuclear plant on that site could become a genocide for the people of Java,"
said Chalid Muhammad, director of Walhi, the Indonesian Forum for the
Environment. "It's a highly risky proposition: 83% of Indonesia is very
dangerous - prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and landslides."

But the Jakarta government and the National Nuclear Energy Agency (Batan)
brushed aside the concerns, citing the growing population that will double
electricity demand by 2025.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/indonesia/Story/0,,2050170,00.html

[EST]

1. As Jim Jones and many other cult-like organizations have

amply demonstrated, mass social delusion and suicide are not particularly unheard of. Mankind is, I fear, its own disease.

[NNadir]

2. Genocide?

How is it that climate change is not called Genocide?

The volcano is dormant.

[Eugene]

3. Dormant is not extinct.

Further on in the article, Indonesian authorities promise
a quake-resistant reactor since it will operate near several
small faults. They also say that Mt. Muria does not threaten
the reactor because it is a small volcano.

Opposition rhetoric may be over the top, but government's
campaign for public support carries excesses of its own.

[NNadir]

4. This depends on whether you consider the submersion of Bengladesh genocide.

I do in fact, consider climate change genocide, if killing hundreds of millions of Bengalis is genocide.

The probability of injury if something happens to the reactor, compares to placing the homes of hundreds of millions of people under the sea how, exactly? Do you know that the probability of a dormant volcano erupting and potentially damaging the reactor is a certainty.

Climate change is a certainty. The destruction of Bengali land is a certainty, since it has already occurred.

This reactor, even if it failed - and there's no evidence it will - will save lives, if it operates for only a few years. More than likely it will operate for six or more decades and do nothing harmful at all.