Comment 45591

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted August 12, 2010 at 22:36:52

The CANDU design reactor themselves do not produce weapon grade plutonium unless used specifically for that purpose.

That is not a very reassuring statement. Kinda like saying "guns don't kill people unless someone uses one to kill people".

Nuclear reactors don't burn a lot of carbon, but the nuclear life cycle does. Mining and refining uranium takes a lot of land, energy and lives, and we still don't have any idea what the eventual price tag for disposal will be.

To say that both countries would have been able to rely on wind farms for a similar purpose and that doing so would have avoided all out war is purely speculative and unsubstantiated. The disputes between India and Pakistan are about land and ideology, this does not disappear due to a choice of power source! It is equally likely that both nation having nuclear capabilities has prevented major conflicts and a large number of casualties simply out of fear of retaliation.

I'm not saying that wind power would prevent a war, but it would be money much better spent. Wind farms don't require uranium fuel and don't produce nuclear weapons. And using nuclear weapons to deter conflict is a dangerous gamble - it's like carrying a gun for self defence. Or in this case, giving them out to feuding neighbours.

12-18 new nuclear nations? No thank you.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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