on the cover / By Japhet Weeks

The Not-So-Peaceful Atom

The makeover is industry-wide. Proponents of nuclear power are touting it as our natural next step, a clean, endless supply of energy. And they’ve latched onto fears of global warming and concerns over the skyrocketing price of oil to usher energy consumers into a new nuclear century. They also argue that today’s reactors are far cleaner and more economic than the dirty, atavistic behemoths of yore.

In their promotional materials, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the leading lobby group for the U.S. nuclear industry, points out that America’s nuclear reactors already produce 20 percent of the electricity we use, and according to the Department of Energy, electricity demand will rise 45 percent by 2030.

In another brochure aimed at debunking myths about radiation, one section header reads, “Radiation: Helping All of Us.” The brochure, which features a nuclear family of four watching the sunset at the beach cites the 1991 National Cancer Institute report, which indicates no increased rate of mortality in communities with nuclear power plants.

But Manetas and Welch don’t buy the hype. They argue that a lack of economic viability has and always will be one of nuclear power’s biggest drawbacks. A nuclear power plant is very expensive to build, Manetas said, and even more expensive to decommission. The Humboldt facility is a case in point. It cost $33 million to construct and he estimates the price tag for decommissioning to be around $380 million. Every nuclear facility across the country has a lifespan of about 30 years. Manetas argues that without significant subsidies from the U.S. government, nuclear power plants wouldn’t be able to break even.

There are also hidden costs to nuclear energy like dealing with the waste it produces as well as extracting and processing the uranium required to run the plants in the first place. “Eventually power plants would be cannibalizing themselves,” Manetas said, “producing just enough energy to produce more power plants.”

As open as PG&E has become over the years to the local community, Manetas is still concerned that “floating over that is cooperate PG&E.” The company owns and operates one of California’s two remaining nuclear power plants, the Diablo Canyon facility in San Luis Obispo.

How would someone like Bob Rowen expect to be treated at a nuclear power plant today? Manetas speculates that “his ability to whistle-blow and make that information public … is more viable in today’s environment.”

Still, Manetas warns that there is a nation-wide nuclear renaissance underway, and the zeitgeist could quickly change back to what it was when Rowen first started working at the Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant. That was a time when the nuclear industry was anxious to prove that their energy prices could compete with those of fossil fuel plants, and they had few qualms about silencing their naysayers.

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