At this point in the climate crisis no nation, state, county or community can afford the “all of the above” fantasy of “large hydro, nuclear and carbon capture should be included in Minnesota’s carbon-free energy mix” as implied by a Dec. 12 Community Voices commentary.
And by using the catchword “carbon capture” it hides the ugly secrets of carbon capture and storage (CCS). For example, at the Illinois Prairie State CCS installation, a separate carbon-emitting gas power plant was built to supply energy for the CCS project: cost $2 billion. Other objections to CCS include a super solvent, KS-21, which is unproven in large operations. In CCS, the carbon is returned to the atmosphere after being used, which does not combat climate change but instead extracts more fossil fuels. So much for CCS – it’s extremely expensive, works poorly and ratepayers are not “buying it.”
But about nuclear power plants (NPP) being “clean”, a term which encompasses “carbon-free.” No matter how you slice it, NPPs are not clean. At the site they emit dangerous radioisotopes into the air, water and soil, including Carbon-14; they produce unspeakably filthy decay products from the splitting of Uranium-235 comprise spent fuel and the manufacture of spent fuel canisters, casks – and transportation of same – emits tons of carbon pollution. At 150 tons each, the spent fuel casks end up in communities that hosted the NPP.
But the real obfuscation contained in the word “clean” is revealed in the fuel cycle. From exploration, mining, milling, enrichment, transportation and fuel fabrication, the process of generating nuclear fuel leaves behind, not just a carbon footprint, but sick and deceased miners, piles of radioactive mill waste in mostly indigenous communities, spectacular and deadly accidents (see Wikipedia on Church Rock in New Mexico), and enrichment-process contamination in Portsmouth, Ohio, Paducah, Kentucky and international sites.
Minnesotans can ask the indigenous communities near the Prairie Islands NPP in Welch, “How do you like raising your family near an NPP, then being stuck with the spent fuel waste?” Or you can ask parents in Piketon, Ohio how they liked having to close a contaminated middle school (Zahn’s Corners) after some children got sick from radiation.
Instead of an “all of the above” philosophy, Minnesotans should be adopting the solar and wind generation philosophy. Nobody is saying solar and wind is perfect, but its imperfections don’t hold a candle to hydro, nuclear or carbon capture.
Jan Boudart is a Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS.org) board member.
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