[Peace-discuss] Corporate media & nukes

[C. G. Estabrook]

The Unrenewed Debate Over Renewable Energy
Little interest in safer, cleaner, even cheaper alternatives to nuclear power

By Miranda Spencer

When the March 11 earthquake and tsunami shut down cooling systems at Japan’s 
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, U.S. government and nuclear industry spin 
control kicked in, asserting that a similar disaster couldn’t happen here, and 
that atomic power is here to stay. Corporate news outlets typically got caught 
up in this spin, relaying distorted and/or incomplete information about our 
energy options from a recycled cohort of pro-nuclear sources.

An option hardly mentioned: renewable energy, such as wind, solar and geothermal 
power.* The topic of energy efficiency and conservation—sure-fire ways to reduce 
demand for energy in the first place—didn’t even surface. In this way, most of 
these media missed a chance to use the Japan crisis to truly examine and debate 
U.S. nuclear policy, or how we might build a safer, cost-effective, low-carbon 
energy future.


The United States is the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy, getting 
some 20 percent of its electrical power from 104 nuclear plants (23 of which 
share Fukushima’s GE Mark 1 design). Nuclear plants aren’t cheap—the world’s 
first new-generation model, under construction in Finland, is priced at $7.2 
billion (Wall Street Journal, 12/1/10)—so keeping older reactors online as long 
as possible has been considered imperative, along with visions of building a 
modern array of plants. Indeed, President Obama recently asked for $36 billion 
in new loan guarantees to offset banks’ and Wall Street’s long-held trepidation 
about such investments.

One might imagine that the Fukushima disaster would prompt a more critical look 
at domestic nuclear power ambitions; instead, U.S. corporate media seemed 
largely to sympathize with the industry. Insensitive headlines blared: “Nuclear 
Push May Be in Peril” (New York Times, 3/14/11), “Japan Crisis May Derail 
Nuclear Renaissance: Damage to Reactors May Already Have Doomed Push for New 
Atomic Power Plants” (L.A. Times, 3/14/11); “Shaken Industry: Tremors from Japan 
Disaster Rattle Future of U.S. Nuclear Power” (Houston Chronicle, 3/18/11). 
CNN’s Gloria Borger (3/17/11) commented that nuclear power “just suffered a 
really bad blow by this, given what happened in Japan”...

[Read more at <http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4282>.]