Nuclear Power & Uranium Mining

With the rush to find new sources of energy to replace fossil fuels many are starting to swing towards Nuclear Power for answers. Sure there are plenty of great reasons to switch to nuclear.. It is a cheap energy source and many countries such as France have very low utility costs. The technology behind the power plants has also become safer so disasters such as Chernobyl will be less likely to occur. However people think that Nuclear power plants are low emission, but they fail to take into account that the act of mining (a very destructive process for regions surrounding mines, and any place downstream/wind of that mine) is destructive in any case. Consider this, we are already running out of oil - reaching the climax of oil production known as Peak oil... but Uranium is also a limited resource. Why would we shift our electrical grid over to a source of energy that will, in due time, run out as we are already doing with oil?

Here's some info on what the mining has done...
http://www.greens.org/s-r/10/10-07.html

http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/sdancy.html

http://sonic.net/~kerry/uranium.html

Here's some on green house gases created to refine uranium and during the mining process, along with many other environmental issues:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-uranium-mining-in-new-brunswick-nova-scotia.html
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20080212/NEWS/415199128
http://www.topix.com/world/canada/2008/03/kingston-uranium-mining-awareness-event-to-illuminate-that-nuclear-energy-not-an-ecological-solution
http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/policy/united_against_uranium2_MR/
http://wa.greens.org.au/policy/environment/nuclear01

-Posted by Jessica L.