(Originally published March 5, 2016 on https://athf3.wordpress.com/)
- Nuclear energy is clean – except for radioactive leaks and radioactive waste.
- Nuclear energy is safe – except for “normal” radioactive releases and the occasional overwhelming catastrophe.
- Nuclear energy is cheap – except for electric power customers who must pay for it.
- Nuclear energy is profitable – except for governments that heavily subsidize it.
Nuclear energy is clearly the best way to create electricity, unless you are one of the people who has to suffer the consequences. It’s like the Flint River is the best source of water; building up the military is the best way to ensure peace; unrestricted use of pesticides and herbicides on genetically modified crops is the best way to grow food; and secrecy laws, secret police, secret courts and secret prisons are the best way to ensure freedom, justice and democracy. It all sounds plausible – until you actually think about it.
How about our local nuclear reactor, Fermi 2, and the one that DTE Energy wants to build on the same site, the proposed Fermi 3 reactor?
You would think DTE might have learned better from the fact that Fermi 1 destroyed itself in a partial meltdown in October of 1966. 2016 is the 50th anniversary of that event, which could have destroyed Detroit, Toledo and Lake Erie if it had been a complete meltdown. Fermi 1, 50 years later, is still not completely cleaned up and decommissioned.
Unfortunately, DTE Energy did not learn better. They built Fermi 2 right next to the ruins of Fermi 1, and they have proposed building Fermi 3 in the same site. They are like a teenage driver who put his first car in a ditch from speeding, who then decides to do better by only doing 100 miles per hour on straight stretchs of road. And now, DTE wants a new car that can go 140 miles an hour – but that will be OK (according to DTE), because they have so much experience going fast.
They are not locating their nuclear reactors on some other planet, where a disaster won’t affect the rest of us. When the reactors at Fukushima had their meltdowns, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission advised all Americans in Japan to get at least 50 miles away. Fifty miles from Fermi 2 incluses the entire cities of Detroit, Toledo and Ann Arbor. Over 5 million people live in Fermi 2’s 50-mile Evacuation Zone. (We have a map you can download, if you’d like to see if your community is included.)
We know that Fermi 2 and Fermi 3 are both bad ideas, but DTE Energy has not learned that lesson yet. We do not want another meltdown or lesser catastrophe so that they do learn it. We want to educate the public so that everyone can see the lies behind advertising and other propaganda in favor of nuclear power in general and the Fermi reactors in particular. That’s why we are here.
Alliance To Halt Fermi 3 is purely a volunteer organization. We have no paid staff, no office and not even an ATHF3 cell phone. We are a 501C3 organization, meaning donations to ATHF3 are tax-deductible. While we can, as a 501C3, do a range of educational publications and activities, we can’t endorse candidates or ballot measures. if you would like to help, then join us or donate or both.
If your local organization would like a live presentation on the subject, then please contact Keith Gunter, keith.gunter9@gmail.com or (734) 838-8084.
Art Myatt