Company files to build two nuclear reactors in Georgia
Southern Co. filed an application yesterday to build two new reactors at an existing nuclear power plant site in Georgia.
Southern Co., the biggest U.S. power producer, is seeking permission from the federal government to build two additional nuclear reactors and almost double output at its Vogtle site in Georgia.
The company is proposing to add two 1,150-megawatt reactors to the two-unit site about 20 miles south of Augusta. Atlanta-based Southern’s application was the first of two submitted Monday to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. South Carolina-based SCANA Corp. said it also filed an application.
“We expect demand for electricity in the Southeast, specifically in Georgia, to increase significantly by 2015 and beyond,” Barnie Beasley, president of Southern’s nuclear unit, said in a statement. “Nuclear power is a safe, reliable, cost-effective power source that has a low impact on the environment.”
«The quantity of radioactivity, which is present in a reactor, is larger than the quantity of radioactivity spread by a nuclear bomb – significantly larger.», (Prof. Dr. C. F. von Weizsäcker, nuclear physicist
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«Since a reactor in one day produces as much radioactivity as a 50-kt nuclear explosion, and fuel in a reactor has typically been there for an average of two years, a typical nuclear reactor has in its core the long-lived radioisotopes from 30 megatons of fission.», Prof. Dr. Richard L. Garwin (nuclear physicist), »Can the World Do Without Nuclear Power?«, Nuclear Control Institute, 9.4.2001
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Please inform the public regarding the «Climatic Change caused by Radioactivity»:
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• A nuclear power plant produces each day the same amount of radioactivity than 4 nuclear bombs the size of Hiroshima!
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• The 5 Swiss nuclear power plants contain radioactivity approximately the size of 10’000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs! This in the production of 2 years.
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This inconceivable amount of radioactivity – this «Climatic Change caused by Radioactivity» – threatens and destroys the foundations of life for our and all future generations. The physical half-lives are completely irrelevant, as they are eternal from a human perspective. Also irrelevant is the calculated probability for accidents, as the potential for damage is far too gigantic. The nuclear physicist Garwin says: «Reactor accidents … too horrible to think about.» A trustworthy banker would advice: «We do not buy these shares» and insurances don’t cover this risk anyway.
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Upon the election of Barack Obama, it was the German politician Hans Dietrich Genscher, who reminded strongly and multiple times to the global top priority: The complete abolition of all nuclear weapons!
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Beside the financial crises and despite the «Climatic Change caused by CO2», we should not forget this. And we shouldn’t forget as well, that this – the abolition of all nuclear weapons – finally is only possible together with the abolition of all nuclear power plants, therefore the switch to Natural Power (electricity from renewable energies) is a pre-requisite. The nuclear conflict in Iran is one but not the only example of this undividable relation between nuclear weapons and nuclear power.