Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 6/10 - Energy

There's an interesting op-ed piece in today's NY Post on nuclear energy by Kyle Smith. It focuses on former opponents who have become proponents, including a documentary filmmaker. Here are some highlights:
"* There is no way to produce energy that’s entirely safe.
* Worldwide, some 3 million people die each year from causes related to fossil-fuel use. The nuclear industry, which causes only a handful of deaths, is far less deadly than even the solar-panel business. The only energy source that is causing fewer annual deaths than nuclear power is wind.
* At Chernobyl, an extremely poorly designed facility made primarily for weapon fuel, hundreds of thousands participated in the cleanup after the 1986 disaster. Yet the UN, the WHO and other international organizations can tie only about 50 deaths directly to the disaster. Perhaps 4,000 lives will be shortened by cancer (a 3% increase) in an area where 5 million people were contaminated by the radiation. At the three neighboring reactors in the same building, people simply went back to work. Villagers returned to their homes nearby. Gov. Cuomo wants to close Indian Point, which provides 25% of NYC’s power.
* All the nuclear waste generated in US history could fit in 10-foot-high barrels covering a single football field. Only about 1% of that material has a scary half-life.
* Next-generation nuclear reactors will be able use recycled nuclear waste for fuel, making nuclear power a renewable resource and massively reducing the amount of waste on Earth. These reactors can also be built so that there will be no danger of overheating.
* The widely advertised fallout disaster after Fukushima never happened. Zero deaths resulted from the plant explosion or the radiation leakage from the accident, though some died in the panicky evacuation of the area.
* 20% of America’s energy is already nuclear. New Jersey and Connecticut get about half their energy from nukes. In Vermont, it’s 75%. In France, 80%."
This is great food for thought. The only concerns I can think of is keeping the plants out of the reach of terrorists, and the possibility that an accident might occur in the future, despite improvements in delivery and safety. I am in favor of it, but it still scares me. Like most fears, I hope they prove groundless, that is, if our politicians ever grow the cojones to approve the building of more plants. Many don't even have the pits to fight the environmental lobby on fracking. The world needs a lot more energy. Wind and solar will provide only a minute fraction of it, at least as things stand now.

The floating book shop had only two customers today, but they were great ones. As soon as I'd set up I spied a tall gentleman in an MTA uniform approaching. He'd bought a lot of non-fiction in the past and didn't disappoint me, buying eleven books. The next two hours were very quiet, then a tall, thin man in sandals passed and returned immediately, asking what my books were about. Wayne picked up A Hitch and Twilight and saw that it is dedicated to the people of the block I grew up on, Bay 37th. That sealed the deal. His family has been on Bay 41st for the past 22 years. He said he'd recently bought a memoir from a manicurist, a woman in her 70's, who works in Sebastian's hair salon. Thanks, guys.

Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3