They shut down the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant today. Yesterday, my son toured a completed but never turned on nuclear power plant in Washington. The reason it was never turned on? The fear unleashed by the Three Mile Island meltdown.
I was 11 when that meltdown happened in 1979. I remember watching the evening news with my Dad and being afraid the world was going to end because of it. That fear gripped the nation and killed off plans for nuclear power around the country.
It’s been 18 years since I went to Satsop, but I too visited the unused power plant my son toured yesterday. And I remember driving up to those ominous cooling towers. Even then, more than two decades after the Three Mile Island meltdown, I could feel cool dread wash through my body.
When I say that to my son, he just gets angry. We shouldn’t have been afraid, he says.
Fear kept us from doing what we needed to do, leaving us with a greater mess than if we’d gone ahead.
The amount of pollution in the world from the combined use of nuclear around the globe is negligible compared to the amount of pollution created by other forms of energy generation. Even the nuclear accidents that have happened are less damaging than any other form of energy generation.
Hydro-electric is not clean, causing significant damage to fish populations.
Wind power is not clean, killing thousands upon thousands of birds annually.
Solar power is not clean, the rare earth metals and other materials used to make the best solar panels today are a landfill nightmare waiting to happen.
Coal power is horrific, with it mountaintop removal extraction.
Oil and natural gas power plants are also based on extraction from the earth, which is always harmful.
If we’re to avoid catastrophic climate change, we need to try nuclear again.
But what if we have a Chernobyl event?
That mothballed nuclear power plant that both my son and I visited 18 years apart was built to withstand direct hits from more than two nuclear weapons. Its concrete walls are five feet thick — and there are layers of them with springs in between to reduce shock. It has a man-made underground lake in case of meltdown. This thing could survive an earthquake of 12.0, which is unheard of. It was built to be indestructible.
We sank billions into it and never used it. Why? Because of fear.
This post isn’t really about nuclear power. It’s about nuclear fear.
Just as our nation was gripped by fear of the ill effects of nuclear power, you and I are gripped by other fears. And because of our fears, we turn our backs on what’s good and needed and resort to things that are harmful to ourselves and others.
So, what fears are holding you back and damaging you in the process? What do you need to do despite your fears?