Pandora's Promise

Pandora's Promise, a CNN documentary about the perils and promise of nuclear energy is very much worth the time to watch. The documentary takes a unique perspective – four different lifelong environmentalists who were once anti-nuclear energy tell their stories and explain their journey from being against nuclear power, to becoming pro-nuclear.

The documentary is unashamedly biased from the beginning, but it does make an attempt to show both sides of the argument. The tipping point for these environmentalists is of course, global climate change, undeniably caused by the pollution created by human activity. If you still Doubt that climate change is happening, just turn on the news and take a look at the horrific video from Beijing and Shanghai, China – as well as the extreme storms, hurricanes, drought and monsoons occurring throughout the world.

Like the environmentalists in the documentary, I am against deriving energy from the burning of fossil fuels – oil, coal and natural gas. However, I differed with their stance against nuclear power in the 70s, 80s and 90s. For me, the nuclear energy question was always a confusing one. For several years, when I lived in Gaffney, South Carolina, I worked just a few miles from the Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant. I had friends who worked at the plant. I drove by it frequently. I swam in the Broad River, where it was located. I took students on tours of the facility. It seemed like a viable, clean alternative – well, almost clean, except for the nuclear waste that lasts for tens of thousands of years.

Then there was Three-mile Island, Chernobyl, and more recently Fukushima. Radioactive clouds, radioactive contaminated water dumped into the ocean and rivers, whole areas of land becoming uninhabitable – the images are terrifying. I think average citizens had every right to be scared to death of this radioactive technology. I believe that, as the documentary points out, large oil and gas conglomerates did everything they could to feed that fear. I had, still have, my doubts...

But, things have changed. If the world population continues to grow, develop, and utilize fossil fuels at the current pace – our planet will be in dire-straits within the next couple of generations. Kyoto protocols and United Nations Climate Summits will never solve the climate change problem... Solar, wind and hydroelectric power cannot produce enough electricity for the demand. And, for humans to change their insatiable desire for the necessities and luxuries that electric power brings, well, this is truly out of the question.

It's now the 21st century, technology has advanced considerably. Our understanding of Nuclear energy has grown exponentially. Many believe it can be deployed correctly and safely. Nuclear power is not the best solution, but at the moment it seems to be our only choice.