Download Energy

Energy Crises - II
Nuclear Power
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reading: M.Garza chapter on anti-nuclear
power movement
Nuclear Power was byproduct of nuclear
weapon production
US Government
 wanted
nuclear power
 financed development of nuclear power
 carried out PR campaign to sell it
 put enormous pressure on utilities to adopt it
Unknowns
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As nuclear power industry began, no one
really understood
 how
to build very large, commercial scale
nuclear reactors
 how to make them safe
 how to dispose of nuclear waste material
 how long they would last
 what to do with them when they wore out
 how much the electricity they would generate
would cost
Anti-nuclear Movement
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Originates in communities most directly
affected + environmentalists + anti-nuclear
weapons movement
White, middle class movement
Fears:
 meltdown
 radioactive
leakage
 radioactive waste disposal
Phase I: 1957 - 1967
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reaction to nuclear weapons, anti-testing,
especially in atmosphere, fear of fallout,
poisoning of oceans
Opposition to locating plants near
population centers, property owners
objected, fishermen objected, women's
opposition
Indian opposition to poisoning from
uranium mining
Phase II: 1968 - 1976
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Anti-nuclear movements links to
environmental movement
Environmental pressure on utilities for all
kinds of pollution, now added nukes
Legal challenges, slowed building, raised
costs
Imposition of safety checks and standards
dramatically raised costs of production
Spread of movement as understand grew
Phase III: 1977 - 1988
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Direct action intensified movement
 Clamshell
Alliance uses civil disobedience
 fueled by 3-Mile Island (1979) & Chernobyl
(1986) debacles
 fueled by deteriorating plants, more info
 fueled by rapid growth of Indian movement
against mining-poisoning & autonomy
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Shift in labor's position
 from
pro-nuke/jobs to anti-nuke, part of crisis
of union leadership
Alternatives
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"Soft Energy Paths"
 renewable
energy (solar, biomass)
 less energy requirements (solar architecture)
 less pollution
 more decentralized
 jobs & security (Amory Lovins)
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Significant defection of scientists
 increasing
flow of imagination & creativity into
exploration and elaboration of alternatives
Ideology
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Anti-capitalism
 Marxist
opposition to use of nukes for labor
and social control
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Deep Ecology
 rethinking
human-nature relationships from
domination to co-existence
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Eco-feminism
 critique
of "Western" dominance of nature as
akin to men's domination of women
Business Reactions
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Accomodation
 Stobough
& Yergin: Harvard Business School
 Political limits on coal, nukes, oil
 thus conservation, solar
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Resistance
 continuing
attack on environmental
constraints
 use of Gulf War to gain drilling rights, nukes
 runaway shops to avoid environ. controls
Accomodation
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Stobaugh & Yergin (1979)
 foreign
oil politically precarious
 increasing conflicts over foreign oil, price rises
 domestic oil & gas production future not bright
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not conventional, off-shore, shale
 coal:
environmental & labor constraints
 nukes:cont. stalemate over plants & waste
 Solar: not "big solar" but "small solar",
diffused use of sun, biomass
 Conservation: serious reduction in demand
War
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War on Environmentalists
 attack
via reduced enforcement, legislation,
terror & intimidation
 continuing push to exploit ALL resources
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War in Gulf (1990 - 1991, 1998?)
 History:countries
& production arranged by
colonial powers (See "Why War?" art.)
 Acceptance of Iraq role, high oil prices
 Keeping Saddam Hussain in his place
 militarization of Gulf, Gulf labor force
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