Nuclear Shills and Vainglorious Lies

We live in an age rife with disinformation and the loudest shills are often the ones with the biggest bag of lies. At the top of this liar's club is nuclear power flack, Patrick Moore, who refers to himself as a "founder" of Greenpeace and uses those credentials to hawk the virtues of nuclear power as the clean and safe antitode to global warming. Harvey Wasserman, an articulate and knowledgeable opponent of nuclear power, systematically deconstructs Moore's phony autobiography, bogus arguments, and unsupported statements in The Sham of Nuke Power and Patrick Moore. This piece is particularly important to me as Moore is speaking in my home state of Vermont, funded by his keepers in the nuclear industry, spreading rhetorical effluent in favor of the ongoing operation of the Vermont Yankee plant.

In this article, Harvey says:

In a world beset by terror, there is no more vulnerable target than an aged reactor like Vermont Yankee. Its core is laden with built-up radiation accumulated over the decades. Its environs are burdened with supremely radioactive spent fuel. Its elderly core and containment are among the most fragile that exist.

Despite industry claims, VY's high-level nuke waste is going nowhere. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Edward McGaffigan has told the New York Times he believes the Yucca Mountain waste repository cannot open for at least another 17-20 years, if ever. At current production levels, it will by then require yet another repository at least that size to handle the spent fuel that will by then be stacked at reactors like VY. In short: the dry casks stacked at Vermont Yankee could comprise what amounts to a permanent high level nuke dump, on the shores of the Connecticut River.

Veront Yankee is the only nuclear power plant operating in Vermont and, if wisdom prevails, its operating permits will not be renewed.