"No Nukes Tour: Organize the South!"

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/oct/09/activist-encourages-opposition-to-nukes/

Activist encourages opposition to nukes
By Glenn Smith
Sunday, October 9, 2011

MOUNT PLEASANT -- A Green Party founder and candidate was among a group of activists who came to town Saturday to take a stand against nuclear power and promote cleaner, renewable forms of energy.

Howie Hawkins, who also co-founded the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance, was the featured speaker at a "No Nukes Tour: Organize the South!" stop at the county library branch in town. He also joined activists at a gathering at the College of Charleston earlier in the day.

The tour, which started in Raleigh on Monday, touted the financial and environmental risks of nuclear power and aimed to galvanize opposition to plant expansion plans in the region, including two projects in South Carolina. Organizers said they focused on the South because 30 of 33 new projects before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are located in the region.

Hawkins said the nuclear industry is financially dependent on costly government subsidies. Nuclear power also carries grave health and environmental risks, as evidenced by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan following a March 11 earthquake and tsunami, he said.

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to make our electricity has to be the stupidest thing man has ever come up with. Its dirty, its dangerous as hell and very costly. The time and money we're wasting on trying to paint some lipstick on that pig is keeping us from developing a more benign way of doing things. It doesn't have to be like this.

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