OCR Text |
Show the pot and kettle Simply by existing, man unavoidably contaminates contamin-ates the environment. Each individual in miniature is an energy-producing power plant. He consumes fuel icarbonhydirates, fats and oils, proteins and other materials he chooses to regard as food which is turned into the energy required for muscular and mental activities. He radiates waste heat to the environment. en-vironment. He eliminates other wastes that are radioactive. radio-active. Counting only the effects of his bodily functions, func-tions, he is a major polluter of ground and surface waters. In a remarkably clear statement, a West Coast utility official explains the positive environmental advantages of tjhe nuclear power plant. The point he makes is that through developing the technology of the atom, needed energy for the progress of civilization civiliz-ation can be produced at a minimum price to the environment. en-vironment. Thermal discharges of a nuclear power plant can be handled in many alternate ways, minimally mini-mally harmful to the water or air environments. Nuclear Nu-clear plants can be integrated into agricultural and industrial complexes efficiently utilizing the by-product heat tJh'at is now wasted. Furthermore, nuclear power plants can almost totally mitigate air pollution pollu-tion now caused by combustion energy, and finally in the official's words, " radiation from nuclear plants is on the ragged edge of a philosophical zero, if not actually at that point, and can be safely controlled." con-trolled." Those who wish to avoid radiation totally must start by .dispensing with food and drink. Even normal drinking water has more radioactivity than a t3Tical nuclear power plant's low-level liquid wastes. When man the fuel burner becomes indignant indig-nant or fearful of nuclear electric power generation, he places himself in the position of the pot calling the kettle black. |