Sustainable Tennessee

Donnie Safer of and Dianne D’arrigo gave a talk about how nuclear power and the processing of waste is not a sustainable option for the state of TN.

Some of the points covered in their talk were:

1) TVA’s focus on nuclear power in the early 70’s nearly bankrupted the company.
2) Nuclear waste is being shipped into TN from Europe and then processed here for dumping elsewhere.
3) Uranium mining creates extreme amounts of nuclear waste.
4) 16% of uranium mining occurs in the US, which is then processed into uranium hexafloride from yellowcake. Paducah, KY is the only place currently processing yellowcake on the east coast.
5) The Padukah, KY area is upwind from Nashville and Middle TN.
6) Bellafonte, Alabama’s new planned nuclear plant cost is 14 billion dollars so far, one of 14 new power plants proposed. Other renewable energy options are safer and more cost effective for the same amount of energy creation.
7) Jonesboro, TN is one place where depleted uranium is processed into waste material for other uses.
There is a plan to import all the low level nuclear waste into TN from Italy after they closed their nuclear plants after the Chernobyl accident.

There are other safer and more responsible options for energy creation in the state such as solar, wind, biomass and geothermal which are safer options. Citizens need to be made aware of the fact that electricity is created in their state through not so clean methods such as “clean” coal and nuclear generation.