Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Four: What Makes the Energy System Vulnerable? 33even the most heavily reinforced major structures can demolish them.Stored energy can also be gravitational, as in the potential of water behinda dam to sweep away whatever is below it if the dam bursts. This potentialhas often been exploited in wartime. Occasionally it is demonstrated in peacetime,accidentally or (as in the recent collapse of a sludge dam in the Kentuckycoalfields) deliberately. 8Still another manifestation of high energy density is the radioactivity ofnuclear materials. Pure fissionable materials (such as uranium-235 or plutonium-239) contain more than a million times as much energy per pound as pure hydrocarbonfuels. They are mildly radioactive; many of their fission and activationproducts are intensely so. Despite extensive precautions, the possibility of accidentalor deliberate releases remains. Since the threat cannot be sensed withoutspecial equipment and can have long-term consequences with high emotionalimpact, even the possibility of a minor release can have major social effects:More than any other type of peacetime disaster, … nuclear emergenciescould cause mass panic.... [T]he prime danger comes ... from the [wide] dispersalof radioactive material..., impossible to detect without special instruments,[and which] could cause fearsome and unpredictable consequences:cancer, sterility, and gross birth defects ... for many years after ... release. 9Since there is no way to tell whether most such injuries were caused by radiationor by something else, the perpetrators of a release can be blamed for far moreharm than they did. Conversely, people cannot be sure the release was not thecause of their affliction, and actual victims may be unable to prove causality as abasis for just compensation. These perplexing issues, now being raised in classactions by persons exposed to the Three Mile Island releases and to fallout frommilitary nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s, have aroused considerable publicattention and anxiety. Some other substances used in energy devices such aspolychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in old transformers, and even the electromagneticemissions of very-high-voltage power lines, raise broadly similar concerns.Limited public acceptanceSuch anxiety is only one of many reasons why many people, from a widevariety of backgrounds and beliefs, may not want to have to bear the socialcosts of major energy facilities. The sources of opposition can include a desireto preserve a particular way of life (an important issue in rural Western areasthreatened with boom-town development); concern about a wide range ofenvironmental impacts (water use, loss of habitat or endangered species, biomedicaleffects of power lines on people and farm animals, potential danger