The nuclear power industry controls the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
A large-scale nuclear accident would disproportionately affect people with limited resources, women and children.
Highly radioactive waste from nuclear reactors is planned to be stored in vulnerable communities of color.
NUCLEAR ENERGY UNDERMINES DEMOCRACY
- facts about nuclear energy -
THE GREEN NEW DEAL BILL is a stimulus program to address both economic inequality and climate change. As of January 2019, more than 620 environmental, labor and religious groups signed an open letter, urging the US congress to move towards renewable and STOP directing massive subsidies towards dirty fossil and nuclear.
Nuclear power plant owners gain large profits from state subsidies at public expense. Ratepayers will pay a nuclear power bailout in New York ($7.6 billion), in Illinois ($2.4 billion), in New Jersey ($3.6 billion), and in Connecticut ($3 billion).
NO SAFE, PERMANENT SOLUTION FOR
RADIOACTIVE WASTE Nuclear power creates radioactive waste such as uranium mill tailings and spent reactor fuel. These materials remain radio-
active and dangerous to human health for tens of thousands of years.
Highly radioactive waste from nuclear reactors is planned to be stored in politically vulnerable communities of color.
NUCLEAR ENERGY IS NOT CARBON-FREE. Uranium mining is a highly extractive process. Along with other parts of the nuclear fuel cycle, it involves fossil use and produces large CO2 emissions.
The fission process creates carbon-14, a radioactive form of carbon, which has a half-life of 5,730 years and is readily incorporated into living cells, adding to human health risk.
Nuclear energy supports Nuclear Proliferation. The inextricable link between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons is arguably the greatest danger of nuclear power.
Nuclear is dirty, dangerous and expensive.
March 2019 marks the 8th year since the triple meltdown and the explosion of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where some 160,000 people evacuated due to the radiological contamination. Tens of thousands remain displaced. Hundreds of malignant or suspected thyroid cancers have already been detected among Fukushima children.
The nuclear power industry controls the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and holds undue influence over Congress. Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko says nuclear energy is nowhere near a perfect solution to the climate crisis.
Nuclear energy undermines democracy. The nuclear energy industry is an extractive industry that people and land must be sacrificed to pursue them. Mining uranium continues to contaminate indigenous communities and severely affect the health of residents.
Hundreds of American sailors became ill after returning from a humanitarian mission to Fukushima in 2011.
Related article on thenation.com
The class actions against Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), and General Electric were dismissed in March 2019.
Ionizing radiation is more harmful to women and children.
Related article on wiseinternational.org
The safety standard on radiation exposure for the public used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is based on calculations of “Reference Man”, who is 25-30 years old, weighs 154 lbs, is 5 feet 6 inches tall, “Caucasian and has a Western European or North American” lifestyle.