LETTER: Nuclear energy still too risky, too expensive and not needed

The situation in Japan shows that nuclear energy is still too risky to be deployed.  We need to move to a carbon-free/nuclear-free energy economy.  The nuclear energy, the politicians that take their money and the media that takes energy advertising have been selling America a bill of goods claiming nuclear energy is the answer — that it is now safe — that it is essential – that it is green.  Horsecrap as we are now seeing in Japan.

Here is a summary of how to achieve a carbon-free/nuclear-free energy economy by 2050.  Existing technologies can accomplish this goal. No doubt if this becomes the approach announced by the government and funded adequately we will see technological breakthroughs that will make this easier and more rapid. In fact, when I spoke to this author a couple of years ago just after he finished the book, he said that more recent technological breakthroughs made this possible by 2030 or 2035.

This summary is from a book, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy written by Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D (his CV http://www.ieer.org/cvarjun.pdf).  He started writing this book thinking it was impossible to have a carbon-free/nuclear-free energy economy but as he researched it he discovered it was possible.   You can get the full book here .  The four page summary is here.

KZ