Thank you, Mister Neuman

There is a commercial that has been running quite a lot on television recently. The animated style is similar to that used in a popular computer game that allows the user to simulate the building of a city. It shows bulldozers digging a pit into the earth and loading ore onto trucks. The trucks carry raw material to a processing plant where it is refined and shaped into fuel rods. Waste is shown in a barely noticeable ghost-like image moving off to one side into a mysterious cylindrical container. The fuel rods are placed into a reactor, the reactor slides into place near a city and the electricity generated goes onto the power grid. The wires are followed along to a night club where a young couple dance amid flashing lights to the catchy tune played throughout the ad.

The message conveyed is very clear. The company responsible for this forty-five second spot is saying "We'll dig this stuff up, haul, refine it, process it, put it into our reactor and turn it into electrical power. You get to dance! What happens after that does not matter. You don't even need to think about it. The thousands of tons of deadly waste, that will be highly radioactive for ten thousand years, left over after the power is generated are not enough of a concern to even be mentioned."

There is a growing effort in this country to start building nuclear power plants again. The powers that wish to be wisely realize that the people of my generation, the baby boomers, will never allow another reactor to be built. So they are targeting their message to those who are not old enough to remember the broken promises offered in the last round of, "Cheap, safe, clean nuclear power!" This is very troubling. I can understand why these corporations want to go nuclear. Whenever you can generate megawatts and then sell it without having to clean up after yourself the profit potential is enormous. And that is the way it has been with the nuclear power industry. Fifty years ago permits were issued and plants were built. The industry and the federal government shook hands and told the masses, "We will work together to find a way to permanently dispose of the waste."

A half century later and not one ounce of the stuff has been moved to a "permanent" resting place. Each day that passes makes it even more unlikely that a place to dump the debris will ever be found. More and more state and local governments are passing laws prohibiting the permanent, or even temporary, storage of radioactive waste in their respective jurisdictions. Many are passing laws banning the transport of such waste through their cities and states. The consumer and environmental protection groups that will fight in court against the movement and disposal of radioactive waste are getting stronger and more numerous every year. Meanwhile the containers in which this deadly material is now stored are deteriorating. Ever increasing the likelihood of the accidental release of glowing green ooze.

But here is the scary part. The people who spent millions to make this commercial and even more millions to run it no doubt hired experts to do studies and focus groups and consumer testing to find the best way to convince the younger generation that nuclear power is safe and clean and necessary. And what image did they come up with?

Disco dancing.

OWL

Sept, 21 2007

Stupidity in America bonus rant- The plan is that once they place this stuff deep into the ground in some geologically stable area they will seal it off and post warning signs for future generations to stay away. They want to put up warnings of danger in every known language, barbed wire, chain link fences, concrete and steel barriers, death's head and radioactive symbols and whatever else they can come up with to discourage people from poking around. They might as well mark it with big red "X" and a sign that says "Dig here!"

owl