Re: Sweden says ok to scrap 2nd nuke -CO2 vs. Hg from coal

[RadiumProj@cs.com]

In a message dated 8/7/00 11:48:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
sandyfl@earthlink.net writes:
FROM A NEWS REPORT:

> Environmentalists have warned that deregulation of the Nordic power 
>  market means, for instance, that Danish coal-burning power stations 
>  can sell cheap power, but the hidden social cost is higher carbon 
>  dioxide emissions. 
>  
======
Radsafe:
I find it interesting that the only environmental impact mentioned in this 
Reuters news article about scrapping some nuclear plants in Sweden is concern 
with CO2 from Danish coal-burning. carbon dioxide/greenhouse effect impacts 
from coal over the intermediate to long term is still being debated by some 
in the scientific community. However, the real present environmental problem 
from coal burning across Europe and northern  regions like Sweden and Denmark 
is mercury pollution of almost all lakes, even the most pristine from 
airborne mercury deposition from fossil fuel combustion. The problem is not 
theoretical, or long-term but today.  Lakes all across Scandinavia [and 
across the Northern US and southern Canada as well in this region] have been 
rendered unsafe for fish consumption for pregnant women and young children 
other than a few ounces of fish per month according to standing warnings in 
effect by public health agencies. 

As a graduate student in the early 1970s involved in a Master's thesis to 
measure mercury in the air, I found that Swedish scientists led the world in 
Hg research beginning in the 1960s and had documented what was happening with 
mercury in the environment in Sweden, a decade or more before mainstream 
science in the US even knew the problem existed. For Sweden to take the steps 
it is taking to shut down its nuclear capacity and replace it with the 
burning of  approximately  6 million tons of coal per year in Denmark or 
other countries nearby for each 1,000 MWe of nuclear capacity shut down in 
Sweden  is absurd from an environmental perspective, and an abdication of 
reason by Swedish science and their government.  For the Greens  and other  
Swedish and European anti-nuclear interests to make any claim of doing what 
they are doing to meet "ecological goals"  or to advance environmental 
stewardship  is hypocritical and opposite to the effect of their actions from 
shutting down existing nuclear capacity. I am sure when the present mercury 
pollution environmental problems worsen across northern Europe and Sweden 
suffers economic impacts from becoming an importer of energy, these same 
parties will be the first to try and blame anyone but themselves for the mess 
they have created.

Stewart Farber, MS Public Health [Air Pollution Control]
Public Health Sciences
172 Old Orchard Way
Warren, VT 05674
email: radiumproj@cs.com

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