GOLDEN OLDIE 77: City Slickers

GOLDEN OLDIE 76: The China Syndrome

 

Having recently grumbled about the bleak future of nuclear power, last night I watched a 1979 movie that encapsulates many of the obvious problems.

The China Syndrome is a fairly entertaining flic: your chance to see Michael Douglas as a kid, Jane Fonda before she became Hanoi Jane and Mrs. Ted Turner, Jack Lemon at his mature best, and Wilford Brimley as – well, as he always is – steady and reliable.  It illustrates what is dangerous about nuclear power – people, and the profit motive.  So, nuts:  enjoy the movie and say goodbye to a nearly inexhaustible source of clean energy.

A question:  where WILL California get the juice to run all those electric cars?  Start buying solar stock, and learn to love those bird-killing windmills!

NUCLEAR POWER

 Trojan nuclear power plant, long since dismantled

I have long been in favor of expanding nuclear power.  It is non-polluting, virtually inexhaustible, and nuclear power plants can be sited almost anywhere.  Sure, such plants are expensive – but maybe worth the cost, considering on-rushing global warming.  But now I am changing my mind – reluctantly.

As I see it, the trouble with nuclear power is – people.  As it stands such plants produce dangerous waste, which must be stored safely for hundreds of thousands of years.  So, big deal; there are thick, flat-lying geological units in the mid-continent that are undisturbed after hundreds of MILLIONS of years!  But of course, NIMBYism, politics, and human cussedness won’t let us store the stuff there.  Then there is fear of “nuclear meltdown” (see the movie The China Syndrome, for instance).  However, multiple layers of fail-safe engineering, although expensive, should do the trick.  Many folks seem to be existentially terrified of nuclear power for no specific reason, but their beliefs are very strongly held and not to be overcome by argument.  So, no nuclear power.

I said earlier that the problem arises because we are human beings.  You don’t build a nuclear power plant in an active seismic zone, no matter how cheap the land nor inexpensive the transmission costs.  You don’t skimp on the engineering in order to add a bit to the bottom line.  Above all, you don’t involve nuclear complexes in wartime distruction!  Sigh!

So, I guess we are stuck with windmills, glass roofing, and a much hotter future.