How Clean Is Nuclear Energy?
A CUB member recently called and left us a phone message with this question: Why wasn’t nuclear power included in the recent CUB report (Bear Facts Summer 2006) on the Clean Energy Agenda we are working to put together for the 2007 Legislative Session? This member said he understood that environmentalists had safety concerns about nuclear waste storage, but he cited the following as reason to open the debate again: “The Bush administration will open negotiations with Russia on a long-discussed civilian nuclear agreement that is to pave the way for Russia to become one of the world’s largest repositories of spent nuclear fuel.” (New York Times, 7/09/06.) With global warming threatening the future health of the entire planet (seen Inconvenient Truth yet?), a significant group of people believe that nuclear power — which contributes fewer greenhouse gas emissions — needs to be part of the energy discussion. According to Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, “If well managed, nuclear ene
