Testimony In Support of HB 465

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Today I testified before the NH House Science, Technology, and Energy Committee,  in support of HB 465 - a bill that would repeal RSA: 162 B (1). This section of the law is atomic cheerleading. Time to move into the future. This is the written testimony I submitted to the committee: 
The Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy law (RSA: 162 B) waspassed in 1955, just a few months before I was born.
The US learned we could harness the atom for bomb makingduring WWII. During the 1950’s the potential for what was then called the “peacefulatom” was all the rage. The atom was the way of the future; we were going to haveatomic powered everything, even toasters.
As you know, it didn’t quite work out that way. It turnedout that atomic energy was fraught with hazards. The waste is carcinogenic, andcan be deadly for hundreds of thousands of years. The uranium mining processalone is a filthy business, polluting land and groundwater on mostly indigenousowned lands. We’ve never found a solution for the waste.
As the years have gone by, we’ve seen accidents at nuclearplants. Our neighboring state of Vermont has an old nuclear plant that has hadfires, a collapsed cooling tower, and a number of leaks of radioactivematerials. Our very own Seabrook Station has a problem with disintegratingconcrete. There has also been at least one leak of radioactive tritium there.
The nuclear industry is based on a big lie: that nuclearpower is safe. One need only look to the free market to see that borne out. Thefree market does not support nuclear power. In order to build plants, theindustry relies on taxpayer-subsidized loans. Taxpayers subsidize the insurancefor the plants, since no private company will insure a nuclear plant.Ratepayers (who are also taxpayers) pay for the outrageous cost of this power,and then pay again for the closing and decommissioning of the plant. A nuclearpower plant is taxpayer subsidized from cradle to grave. To put it another way,it is socialized risk and privatized profit. Meanwhile the deadly waste isstored on site. Since all containers disintegrate eventually, this waste cannotbe safely stored for indefinite periods of time. There is only one solution,and that is not to create any more waste.
Chernobyl. Fukushima. An accident at a nuclear plantimperils us all, imperils our planet. As the climate continues to change, theplants built in coastal areas are a danger with rising ocean levels. The bigsnowstorm last week shut the Pilgrim plant in Massachusetts down. It’s only amatter of time until that becomes a problem here in NH. We need to thinkcarefully about the future, and act accordingly.
The Peaceful Atom is a relic of the 1950’s. It was anexciting new idea at the time, but now it’s a clunky old leaky behemoth. Thoseof you who are old enough remember that doctors told patients that smokingcigarettes was good for you back then. We know better now. Just as we knowbetter about nuclear power.
The future is in clean, renewable energy sources. Countriesall over the world are embracing that future, including countries that havebeen in thrall to the nuclear industry for decades.
It’s time to start moving into the future. I urge you tosupport HB 465, and repeal the clunky old atomic energy law. It’s enough thatwe’ll be storing radioactive waste for centuries here. This old law enables thedishonest profiteers of the nuclear industry to make an argument for extendingthe license of a nuclear plant that is already disintegrating. The state of NewHampshire should decide what the energy future of our state looks like, notgreedy corporations who plunder and move on.

February 14, 2013