Katie Nekola is an attorney and Energy Program Director for the environmental group Clean Wisconsin.  Nekola served last winter on the “Special Committee on Nuclear Power,” chaired by Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Green Bay.

The committee wants to repeal Wisconsin’s nuclear moratorium.  Nekola opposes lifting the ban on nuclear power plant construction in Wisconsin. Nick Vander Puy reports.

Katie Nekola says Wisconsin’s nuclear moratorium law which has been on the books more than twenty years has two very sensible conditions.  Before a nuclear power plant may be built in Wisconsin the following must happen.

“One condition is that there should be a permanent  radioactive waste storage facility operating and licensed, which there isn’t and isn’t likely to be,  and two,  that building nukes is in the economic interests of Wisconsin customers, which there never has been because these things are really expensive to build, so if the industry would meet these standards they’d be free to go ahead.”

The reason for this law is high level nuclear waste is lethal for thousands and thousands of years. And as Nekola just alluded to the federal government, back in the nineteen eighties, promised to establish a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.  But resistance by Shoshone Indians and other conservationists makes the Yucca Mountain dump unlikely to open.

During this past winter  Nekola, along with Wisconsin’s  “Special Committee on Nuclear Power,” heard these concerns  when they visited the proposed Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. 

But Nekola says  a majority on the committee still want a nuclear power resurgence  in Wisconsin.

“Although there are politicians and people at the University who are funded by the nuclear industry who would like there to be. There really can’t be a nuclear resurgence in Wisconsin as long as Wisconsin utilities are doing everything they can to get rid of their nuclear assets.  In fact James Roe, the CEO of Exelon Corporation which operates many plants around the country said in his presentation  he wouldn’t build one here. So I don’t think Wisconsin is poised on the brink of a nuclear resurgence. Although some people like Phil Montgomery would like it to be.”

Katie Nekola opposes nuclear power.  She says it’s like cutting butter with a chainsaw.

“I oppose nuclear power for pretty simple, commonsense reasons. I thinks its foolish and reckless to use technology that produces radioactive waste products that stay lethal for thousands of years to do something as simple as making electricity, when we can make electricity with something as reliable as the wind and sun. Of course the nuclear industry doesn’t want us to believe we can use  wind and solar because they make millions of dollars on building nuclear plants.” 

But not all greens agree with Nekola.  James Lovelock is a British green who came up with the Gaia theory which considers the earth a single, self-regulating organism.  As nuclear power  plants don’t release carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere Lovelock wants  a massive shift to nuclear energy to avoid  more imminent catastrophe from coal burning and  global warming.

“Even if in total fewer greenhouse gases are emitted than from coal plants it still doesn’t make it a sensible solution to global warming.  A sensible solution would be to use twenty first century technology that’s safe, doesn’t create huge radio active waste disposal problems, and doesn’t need an armed security force to protect it from terrorist threat.”

Nekola thinks if the federal government would subsidize renewables, even a fraction as much as they subsidize nuclear and coal, you’d see wind and solar energy take off.

“If you fly into Amsterdam or Germany  and see wind turbines across the north sea, I think that’s an inspiring sight, like for us to aspire to that, rather than these dangerous and scary nuclear plants.”

I’m Nick Vander Puy for the Superior Broadcast Network. 

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The Special Committee on Nuclear Power wants to repeal Wisconsin’s nuclear moratorium law.  They’re going  to report to the Joint Legislative Council  in Room 411 south Madison Capital building, Thursday morning May 10th at 8:30AM.

Nuke Watch sends this message..........

Help keep more nuclear

reactors and radioactive

waste out of Wisconsin

 Please contact your State Legislators and urge them to VOTE NO on any repeal of state statute 196.493 ― a common sense law that protects the public from unnecessary pollution and nuclear waste.

 If passed, the repeal bill would encourage more nuclear power in Wisconsin and increase the likelihood that the state will become a national high-level nuclear waste dumpsite.

 If passed, the repeal would eliminate two legal requirements that must now be met before new reactors can be built in Wisconsin:

 1) That a federal nuclear waste storage site must be in operation; and 2) that reactor-generated electricity must be economically advantageous to the ratepayer compared with alternatives.

A special Nuclear Power Committee has recommended repeal of these precautionary, conservative requirements. Their effort is part of an industry push for more reactors and waste nationwide. Pro-nuclear propaganda has it that nuclear power is “cheap” and “carbon free.” But nuclear waste management will cost hundreds of billions of dollars for at least 300,000 years; and the mining, milling and production of reactor fuel creates millions of tons of carbon pollution that the industry ignores.

 The proposed Yucca Mountain dump site in Nevada is unfit and should never open. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission member said Feb. 7, 2007 that the Yucca project must be scrapped. This would put Wisconsin on the list of potential dump sites, especially if tons of new waste is produced by new reactors.

 The time to express your opinion is now, before the Wisconsin Legislative Council takes a vote ― possibly in May. Please call, write, email and/or visit your legislators as soon as possible.

Nukewatch

P.O. Box 649, Luck, Wisc. 54853

(715) 472-4185

nukewatch@lakeland.ws

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