2010-06-08

BP Oil Spill: The Three Mile Island Connection

From Businessgreen.com:
The report cites a recent article from Canadian newspaper commentator Jeff Rubins, which predicts that the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig will affect the oil industry in a manner comparable to the nuclear incident at Three-Mile Island in the US, which effectively put an end to the building of new nuclear plans for a generation.


"The real legacy of Three Mile Island wasn't what happened back in 1979, but rather what happened - or more precisely didn't happen - over the course of the next 40 years in the US," Rubins noted. "Literally overnight, the near-meltdown of the reactor core changed public acceptance of nuclear power plants. No company in the US has built a new one since.
And now that nuclear energy is seen as a great alternative, the Americans only shot themselves in the foot. Had they done so back then maybe they'd be in the situation Llyod's is advocating.

Ah, the irony of enivronmental policy.

2 comments:

  1. In the energy biz, often public policy and practical reality go together like a rabid raccoon at a family picnic. Or something like that.

    Having worked in the US energy sector for over 20 years, I'm concerned about the vast knowledge gap in the public and the press and academia regarding the real world problems in producing cheap electric power. Achieving a better understanding of our energy present will surely help us develop a better energy future. (I'm betting on mutant squirrels on treadmills.)

    For a free, realistic portrait of this generation of US nuclear plants, I suggest my "Rad Decision: A Novel of Nuclear Power." It is written as a thriller to avoid reader boredom - and that seems to be working, judging from the comments I've received at the website. Why not hear what someone in the bowels of the industry has to say? It is free online, or it's in paperback. See RadDecision.blogspot.com


    “I got to about page four and I was hooked, I couldn’t put it down… It was very easy to read, the characters were well described, and they were vibrant.”

    - DAVID LEVY, noted science author and Parade Magazine contributor. You can hear David Levy's interview with the author of Rad Decision at www.letstalkstars.com/recent_2010.htm


    "I'd like to see Rad Decision widely read"

    - STEWART BRAND, founder of The Whole Earth Catalog, National Book Award winner

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, James. Will definitely give it a go. I laughed at the "boredom" remark. Energy can get quite, erm, heavy. Mind you, we can say that about a lot of things - like foreign policy, economics, finance. But energy seems especially tough because we're not or haven't been exposed to it like the other issues.

    And I absolutely agree that there's a wide gap as you suggested. It's something I've noted listening to experts or reading their blogs and measuring that against public opinion and the media.

    I read the Oil Drum for instance, and simply get lost half way into a discussion it's beyond my experience to fully understand.

    Getting to the root of energy policy is slick and messy to say the least and I simply don't have the time to swim through it!

    ReplyDelete

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