Join the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent at the September 21st People’s Climate March in New York City

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

*  Join the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent at the September 21st People’s Climate March in New York City

On September 21, 2014, the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent will join the historic People’s Climate March in New York City to demand immediate action from all of the governments of the world to slash climate-changing emissions in all sectors of society.  They say that nuclear power cannot solve the climate crisis and that its continued use exacerbates the problem by preventing the deployment of clean energy systems.  Their slogan is “No Nukes, No Coal, No Kidding!  Don’t Nuke the Climate!”

The Nuclear Information and Resource Service, based in Takoma Park, Maryland, is taking the lead for the Contingent.  They say that a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy system is a necessity and define it as a “system that relies not on antiquated energy models of the 20th century and their polluting nuclear power and fossil fuel technologies, but on a safe, clean, affordable and sustainable renewable energy, energy efficiency, and modern grid technologies of the 21st century.”

They argue that nuclear power is too dangerous, too dirty, too expensive and too slow.  It is too dangerous because expanded use would inevitably lead to more Fukushimas and Chernobyls.  New designs for nuclear reactors exist only on paper and cannot be brought to the commercial marketplace in time to have a meaningful impact on climate change.  Further, the technology and materials needed to generate nuclear energy can be diverted to nuclear weapons programs.

Nuclear power is too dirty because the nuclear fuel chain produces vast amounts of lethal radioactive and toxic waste.  The nuclear fuel chain is responsible for far more carbon emissions than renewable energy generation and improved energy efficiency.

Nuclear power is the most expensive means possible for reducing carbon and methane emissions.  Its use crowds out investment in clean energy sources.

Construction of nuclear power plants would require an unprecedented nuclear construction program, which would be beyond the capability of the world’s manufacturers within an acceptable time frame.

The Contingent argues that “clean energy, including solar, wind, appropriately-sited geothermal, increased energy efficiency, distributed generation, electricity storage and other advanced technologies, can meet the world’s electricity needs without radiation releases, carbon and methane emissions and other pollutants.  All that is lacking is the political will to rapidly deploy these clean technologies.”

You are cordially invited to be part of the largest, most visible outpouring of public support ever for immediate action on the climate crisis and against nuclear power as a counterproductive climate solution.  Michael Marriott, of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, wrote that the March “can be the largest anti-nuclear power outpouring in decades-but that depends on you.”  For more information, please visit nirs.org.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  For more information, please visit nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

Tags: Carbon-Free Contingent, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, nuclear power, Nuclear-Free, People's Climate March