Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu
Comments
Like --
A. If he/she keeps saying that a reactor is "spewing" out radioactivity.
B. Fukushima is a "nuclear accident" instead of a "tsunami accident" (since people are killed in disasters).
C. Keeps showing crying little kids being swept by Geiger counters.
D. Gives a pro-nuker a five second bite in a three minute nuclear report.
E. Has deep ominous music playing in the background while showing clips of nuke plants under dark cloudy skies.
F. Keeps filming huge looming cooling towers like they ARE the reactors.
Etc...
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Correction for "B" is:
B. Fukushima is a "nuclear disaster" instead of a "tsunami disaster" (since people are killed in disasters).
James Greenidge
Queens NY
* First, such polls are definitely not scientific, and so are likely to be innaccurate - as an example, you have NEI calling on members to vote, and no doubt you probably have anti-nuclear organizations call upon their supporters to vote, and so the results could just reflect what organizations noticed the poll, and which are best organized to get member response quickly to such things.
* Even if you had a formal, official "voted" during an election, the question of whether to shutdown an individual nuclear plant should not be up for majority opinion. The majority can vote on overall policy - I suppose if a majority of Americans wanted to shutdown all nuclear power plants, that would be a legitimate exercise of democracy, but when it comes to individual plants, it should be owners, and regulators (e.g. NRC) who decide on technical and legal grounds whether the plant qualifies to be licensed and operate, not MOB RULE.