The NRC and God

I recently attended the NRC meeting in Brattleboro, VT.  I sat and listened.  I did not speak but this is what I would like to say.

I would like to start with a quote from Nietzsche.  God is Dead. Nietzsche warned that some people might make science and technology the new God.  It seems to me that you people, the NRC and the Entergy, do worship technology.  You seem to have  the same glazed faith that people used to have  about religion.   I hear all these power point presentations about the policies and procedures. There is this irrational faith that if one monitors all the sins of commission and omission everything will work out alright.

I am reminded of NFL.   There are all these rules and regulations that are supposed to make the game safe, and there are penalties for breaking the rules, and it is regulated, and everything is alright.   Deals are made.  Tax breaks are made for the teams    But it isn’t alright.   The players are destroyed with traumatic brain injury, and the culture of violence has an impact on them and their families.  The revenues promised never materialize.  But wait, We are all having a good time.    Let us not look at the mess that is being made.  After all, it is just a game,  You don’t have to watch.

And so, the NRC dance goes on, and experts fuss over policies and procedures.   And everyone says its ok.   But even after  the Marshall Islands, Mayak, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima we are being told that everything is alright.  The nuclear industry is not a game, and the stakes for getting it wrong are catastrophic.

There seems to be this stunning arrogance, that everything is under control.   Is there no understanding of hubris?

Where is your moral compass?   Cannot you tell right from wrong?   What will it take for you to decide that nuclear power is not the answer?   What are you willing to accept before you change your mind?