Bill Gates on the nuclear bandwagon, Australia’s Gareth Evans on board, too.
The nuclear industry is trying to hijack the Paris Climate Summit , Independent Australia, 6 December 2015 The new Breakthrough Energy Coalition, backed by billionaires such as Bill Gates and supported by the global nuclear lobby is hijacking climate talks at COP21, writesNoel Wauchope.
At the Paris Climate Summit (COP21), the global nuclear lobby is in overdrive.
The centrepiece of today’s global nuclear lobbying is the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, led by Bill Gates, made public at the start of the conference.
Bill Gates announced the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, uniting the efforts of two dozen other billionaire philanthropists such asRichard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, to sponsor research into energy that doesn’t produce carbon.
Gates was present in Paris together with U.S. President Barack Obama — the White House is reported to be supportive of the initiative. Article after article in the U.S. and other media outline the purpose of this group, stressing renewable initiatives, or rather, “clean” energy initiatives. Nuclear power is not mentioned but is tacitly included in that weasel word, “clean”. …..
Eventually, I came upon Tina Casey‘s article, in Clean Technica: the very first one to notice the Breakthrough Energy Coalition’s focus on the nuclear industry and to question the inclusion of nuclear energy as “clean energy”.
She also notes the group’s co-operation with Mission Innovation, which brings tax-payer funding into the “clean” energy research programs. And Casey reminds us that Bill Gates is co-founder and chair of the innovative nuclear energy company TerraPower.
Only one university has joined the group, the University of California, which runs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — known for its nuclear energy research facilities.
Meanwhile, back in Australia, nuclear enthusiasts are on the bandwagon, too. The latest – and one of my favourites – is Gareth Evans. Evans has long been a voice for the nuclear industry, while simultaneously being Australia’s voice for nuclear disarmament. He sees no connection between nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
The Australian, ever a promoter of the nuclear industry, quotes Evans under the headline, ‘Nuclear waste dump a no-brainer‘.
At the South Australian Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission on 3 December 2015, Evans isquoted as being almost ecstatic at the thought of Australia importing the world’s radioactive trash:
“Australia would stand very tall in the international community by repatriating waste made from exported uranium as well as storing waste for other countries. It was disconcerting that European countries had been spooked by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.”
And Professor Evans used that notorious nuclear lobby argument to counter critics of nuclear power. He said:
“To me seems a triumph of emotion over reason.’……
Bill Gates himself may be something of a dreamer, with high aims and ideals, along with the commercial motive. His Breakthrough Energy Coalition sounds suspiciously like the Breakthrough Institute, which has a long history of advocating inaction on fossil fuel emissions, with the distracting promise of almost magical, new nuclear reactors that still exist only as blueprints. https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-nuclear-industry-is-trying-to-hijack-the-paris-climate-summit,8458
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