Earlier this year, President Obama approved over eight billion dollars in conditional loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear reactors.
Obama had "bad" advising going on. Better would've been to create a renewable energy grid and get going on the creation and storage of solar and wind energy. Get the smartest minds in the world involved. Create worthwhile jobs that support the environment and humans, rather than harm both.
We sent a man to the moon.
Harnessing the sun and wind for energy should be a piece of cake.
But now. In former industry centers like southwestern Colorado, where a company called Energy Fuels arrived in 2007 with plans to build America's first new uranium mill in almost thirty years, the response in the Paradox region of southwestern Colorado, where once uranium miners dropped dead from high rates of cancer, has been surprisingly positive due to jobs.
The sound of money is drowning out the memory of cancer (and contaminated land) victims. So many known and unknown people have died mining uranium.
Areas where locals once mined for uranium are still radioactive and off-limits.
Would you want to live near there? Work there?
How about giving miners safer jobs?
Mine the wind.
Mine the sun.
Mine tidal waves.
Algae farms.
Waste.
There's nowhere safe to store the radioactive material once its made. In Hanford, Washington (our nuclear waste storage facility) cracked canisters are leaking.
In an article called "The Uranium Widows", The New Yorker reporter Peter Hessler visits southwestern Colorado and examines community reaction to the plans to build America's first new uranium mill in almost thirty years. To read more click here.
To read my take on a so-called environmental book called Whole Earth Discipline that is promoting nuclear as safe, click here.
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