Free Republic

BUCHANAN, N.Y. — For a striped bass in the Hudson River, a clutch of trout eggs in Lake Michigan or a salmon in San Francisco Bay, drifting a little too close to a power plant spells death. Sucked in with enormous volumes of water, battered against the sides of pipes and heated by steam, the small fry of the aquatic world are being sacrificed to the cooling systems of power plants around the country. Environmentalists say the killing is needless, but energy-industry officials say opponents of nuclear power exaggerate the losses. The issue is being debated at an Indian Point...

About 2 billion people were said to have watched the Live Earth benefit concerts to end global warming. I imagine that perhaps 1,999,999,999 of them made at least one wisecrack about the hypocrisy of rock stars burning up all that energy to make the point that we shouldn't burn energy. Similar charges of hypocrisy dogged that 1979 "No Nukes" benefit concert in Madison Square Garden, when dozens of rockers plugged their amplifiers into electrical current provided by nuclear power so they could express their wishes that such power would be eliminated from Earth. As the old saying goes, be careful...

...The reactor type used at Chernobyl was inherently unsafe — it has never been used in this country and never will. Above all else, it lacked a containment structure, designed to contain radiation should everything else fail. The only other meltdown in history came at Three Mile Island — whose containment dome completely contained all the radiation released by the meltdown. Radioactive gases were then control-released into the atmosphere over the course of a week. Sounds scary? Had you been standing at the perimeter fence at TMI during this period, you would have received about the same radiological dose as...

More on Environmentalism Science, Politics and Deathby Arthur B. Robinson & Jane M. OrientEnvironmental extremism kills. Millions die annually because of restrictions on DDT, and imposing the "Kyoto" regulations would kill many more.Dr. Arthur B. Robinson, a professor of chemistry, is the founder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, and editor of the newsletter Access to Energy. Dr. Jane Orient, a specialist in internal medicine, has a private practice and is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Easily usable energy is the currency of human progress. Without it, stagnation, regression and untold...

<p>New Jersey counter-terrorism officials are denying a state lawmaker's claim that detailed plans of the Salem/Hope Creek nuclear power complex - situated across the Delaware River from Augustine Beach - were found in a cave in Afghanistan.</p> <p>Following a tour of the complex Tuesday, Assemblyman Gary Guear announced that a National Guard member had told legislators the plans had been found in a cave used by al-Qaida members.</p>