After Fukushima, nuclear energy opens rift in G8

[kristopher]

ANALYSIS: After Fukushima, nuclear energy opens rift in G8

Tokyo/Berlin - The Fukushima nuclear disaster has opened a rift in the Group of Eight (G8), with three of its members losing faith in nuclear's promise of almost limitless clean energy.

...With many Japanese convinced that nuclear stations pose an enormous risk in a quake-prone country, the country's electorate is unlikely to accept construction of any more nuclear plants in future.


In a sense Germany, which is already committed to scrap nuclear power within about 25 years, has reacted more allergically to the disaster than the Japanese themselves.

Within days, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government ordered seven of the country's oldest plants to be idled. An eighth had already been taken offline. Merkel appointed a panel of experts to give her bipartisan advice...

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/features/article_1641363.php/ANALYSIS-After-Fukushima-nuclear-energy-opens-rift-in-G8

[Wilms]

1. Quite a little snip right here...

Germany "invested 41.2 billion dollars, mainly for photo-voltaic panels on the roofs of their homes, the US-based Pew Trusts recently calculated."

I wonder if these homes store electricity.

[kristopher]

2. Why would you wonder that?

Please explain your thinking behind that remark fully.

[Wilms]

3. Wondering what happens at night. n/t

[kristopher]

4. Like I said, why would you "wonder" that?

Are you afraid to just be clear about the message you are trying to convey?

Would that be because you know the message is really a false one based on right wing talking points aimed at spreading the famous fear, uncertainty and doubt (aka FUD) about renewables?

I for one thank the German government and the German people for taking on the burden that most of the rest of the world has shrugged off. They adopted policies designed to build an industrial base for both wind and solar in order to help save the world by moving it away from fossil fuels. Being an early adopters like that means they knowingly and willingly paid the high price required to meet the larger goal.

As for "storage" and "solar doesn't produce power at night", please, give it a fucking break already. They aren't trying to go off the grid, they are trying to reconfigure the grid they have.

[Wilms]

7. Perhaps you have confused me with someone else.

In the interest of comity, I'll leave it at that.

[Viking 1]

5. Please

Don't use the words "nuclear" and "rift" in the same sentence. :scared:

[Zoeisright]

6. "Clean energy" my ass. That stuff is uncontrollable poison.

And that reality is being proven in real time in Japan right now. And for years and years and years to come.

[camdengirl]

8. Am I just a cynic?

Hi to all,
I am new to this forum and this is my first posting.
Just before I go on I thought that I would like to briefly introduce myself and say a little as to what motivated me to register for this particular site.
This is also for the benefit of the site moderators.
My name is Rachel I am a single non working 40 something female who lives in London in the UK.

I am a leftie politically active person and I enjoy getting involved in discussions as I am a strong believer that politics should be about learning from one another.

The last point leads in some fashion into some of the reasons that this forum interested me enough to want to get involved which are that I am interested in learning more than I already know about American working class people on a political and hopefully even a historical level and this site if I have got it right seems to be quite US centric.
I have read through the usage rules of this site and will do my best to adhere to them but I can state with absolute certainty what will never be posted in one of my posts ever is any discrimination on any personal grounds such as gender ,race, sexuality or a disability and so on or any personal insults or attacks.



On to the topic of nuclear power.

We should not accept them we do not need them we never have and never will.
The people that want them and lie through their teeth about how essential they are are the ruling elite the capitalists the bosses
It is capitalist industry that has the thirst and the need for power.


Germany is one of the most advanced nations on the planet both industrially and socially it is in present times one of the most stable too this puts it in a position where it can afford even that it can not afford not to look at nuclear power alternatives.
Although Germany is a capitalist country the workers struggles and gains albeit it is still not a perfect situation are far more advanced than many if not the majority of other countries through out the world.
China which is a very new capitalist industrial country is so very different and they can not get enough of anything except workers.
China already has 13 nuclear plants with another 20 under construction and in future years no doubt as Africa and India become more developed there will be many more worldwide to come.
So capitalism builds nuclear power station if Chinese capitalists did not have millions of workers to exploit it would have no need for nuclear power stations.
Is this acceptable?
Well for one,
there is the argument that the environment suffers horrendously from the mass consumption of fossil fuels,
and two ,
the west have built their wealth with the aid of nuclear power so there is an argument asking
what right do we have to try to stop developing countries going nuclear?
Every right I say.