March 13th, 2011
12:44 PM ET
10 years ago
Lieberman says hold off on new nuclear plants for now
(CNN) - A Senate proponent of nuclear energy called Sunday for a temporary halt in building new nuclear power plants in the United States until the situation in Japan can be examined.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who sits with the Democratic caucus, told the CBS program "Face the Nation" that the United States should "put the brakes on right now until we understand the ramifications of what's happening in Japan."
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Who died and made him ruler?? Glen Beck??
Wind and solar, and natural gas, are looking like better alternatives every day. Let's create American jobs by building them here. No matter how big an earthquake, none of those sources would destroy the environment for mikes or kill anyone.
No joke dippy! Better thought, never build another one!
Not surprised at his comment, with his history of policy changing with the current headlines! This guy has Always blown with the prevailing wind.
Like he and McCain, change their entire political stance on newspaper headlines to determine their policy of the day.
Whatever seems safe to maintain their political support and Nothing else !
Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco, Shell, and other big oil companies may just fire their almost 300 elected republican employees in the senate and house in Washington DC, if they repeal their tax breaks, and do not stop alternate energy.
Drill Baby Drill. That's what we need to do here in America. These bleeding heart liberals, who call
Republicans whack jobs, because they want to make America more energy independent are way off man. Do it now, not later. Vote for the Republican nominee in 2012. A Republican knows how to get the economical ball rolling.
This note of caution may be the only good to come out of the terrible tragedy in Japan. The renewed interest in nuclear power is fueled by a number of mis-preception, which are themselves only possible because so few people remember Three Mile Island, and those who have heard of Chernoble, discount that tragedy because, after all it didn't relate "our world."
1. The consequences of a core meltdown in the nuclear power industry are catastrophic, and like the deep water Horizon incident, we really do not have any experience with how to respond when events start to spiral out of control, because we have no good way of modeling the many ways that failure could occur.
2. Whatever safeguards we employ for breakdowns in normal operation, it is nearly impossible to build in safeguards for the most extreme natural disasters, not to mention terrorist attacks.
3. We still have no plan for disposal of high level radioactive waste.
4. Before Three Mile Island the cost of Nuclear Power was already making it clear that this was not a power source that was "too cheap to meter," as President Eisenhower had said when the Atomic Energy Agency was formed. The development of a comparable level solar power would cost less. The solar industry just doesn't have a good lobby.
5. An last but not least John McCains oft cited example of the safety record for nuclear energy in powering Naval vessels is misleading. The scale is magnitudes of order different. It's like saying that we should have no problems meeting all our needs with solar power. We can and ultimately we will need to, but one 2'x4' solar panel will produce about enough energy to light a standard 60 watt light bulb and that only when the sun is out. Nuclear power is no panacea.
Everyone TRY and take into consideration the locations.
I'm sure everyone here is smart enough to figure that one out.