Copenhagen, Dec 13, 2009

Today, United States Secretary of Energy Steven Chu spoke in Copenhagen at Bright Green on alternative energy development and innovation.

Of note are his comments in support of nuclear power in part two beginning at 5:57 where he states that he believes the waste problem can be solved.

Partial Excerpt:
“I personally feel that nuclear power has to be part of the mix of the century because it is carbon free and it is baseload. I believe the nuclear reactors are much safer, the designs today.”

“So what are the issues? Are they going to be economical number one, and if they are designed properly we hope so. Are they going to be safe? The other thing is waste. I think the nuclear waste issue is a solvable problem, we know a lot more than the United States knew twenty five years ago…”

“To my mind the more serious problem which will require international cooperation is non-proliferation, once you have nuclear reactors, you could have, you have the option possibly of turning some of that into some bomb material, but, I think, again that is solvable.”

These comments contrasted sharply with comments by Dr. Helen Caldicott, who spoke inside the COP 15 and at the Copenhagen climate march the day earlier. Helen Caldicott stated that a nuclear reactor produces 250 kg of plutonium per year, and that 5 kg of plutonium is enough to produce a weapon.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Copenhagen, Dec 12, 2009

Helen Caldicott spoke this evening near the end of the Copenhagen climate march denouncing nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

Partial Text of Helen Caldicott’s Speech:
“Hello. The Earth is in the intensive care unit, it is acutely sick. We are all now physicians to a dying planet. We have to stop spending 1.7 trillion dollars on weapons and death. We have to make the politicians understand science. We have to make the politicians take responsibility not just for us, but all future generations yet to be born. ”

“The nuclear power industry have used global warming to say “we’re the answer”. All the money to go into nuclear power, 15 billion dollars per power plant, is being stolen from the solutions to fix the earth – solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, conservation. ”

“The nuclear power industry is wicked. The nuclear power industry was formed by the bomb makers – it’s the same thing. Nuclear power plants are bomb factories – they make plutonium. 250 kilos a year of plutonium that lasts for 250,000 years. You need 5 kilos to make a nuclear bomb. Any country that has a nuclear power plant has a bomb factory. ”

“If the second World War was fought today in Europe none of you would be here, Europe would be a radioactive wasteland, because all the nuclear power plants would melt down like Chernobyl. So war is now impossible in Europe. Do the politicians understand that? Nuclear power produces massive quantities, hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive waste, which will get into the water concentrate into the fish, the milk, the food, human breast milk, fetuses, babies, children. Radioactive iodine causes thyroid cancer. 12,000 people in Belarus had thyroid cancer. Radioactive Strontium 90 causes bone cancer and leukemia, lasts for 600 years. Cesium 137 – all over Europe now – in the reindeer in the lands, in the food, lasts for six hundred years, causes brain cancer. Plutonium, the most dangerous substance on Earth, 1 millionth of a gram cause cancer, lasts for 250,000 years. Causes lung cancer, liver cancer, testicular cancer, damages fetuses so they are born deformed. Nuclear power therefore nuclear waste for all future generation will of cancer in young children because they are very sensitive, genetic disease, congenital deformities. Nuclear power is about disease, and it’s about death. It will produce the greatest public health hazard the world has ever seen for the rest of time. We must close down every single nuclear reactive in Europe and throughout the world…”

Report by James George