Business Forum: Nuclear power is not 'clean energy'

• Article by: JOHNNY JOHNSON 
• Updated: November 17, 2013 - 1:50 PM

Before taking expansion of nuclear power seriously, the country needs to deal with the unresolved issue of radioactive waste storage.When he announced his climate action plan this summer, President Obama said we have “a moral obligation to leave our children a planet that’s not polluted or damaged” and that by taking “responsible steps to cut carbon pollution,” we can “leave a cleaner, more stable environment for future generations.”

To anyone concerned about our energy policy and our planet, the president’s plan could be a promising sign. But for the Prairie Island Indian Community, we found his words advocating an “all-of-the-above approach to develop homegrown energy” disconcerting. And this month’s announcement of a new presidential adviser to implement the climate action plan did little to assuage our fears.

Let me tell you why. As ­Mdewakanton Dakota, we use the term “seven generations” to refer to a length of time — and the successive generations of our people who can be affected by our actions today. So while we applaud and support the goal to leave our future generations a cleaner, more stable environment, we disagree with the president and the growing chorus from the pro-nuclear lobby who say that increased nuclear power is the pathway to cleaner energy security.

To be clear, the Prairie Island Indian Community is not opposed to nuclear power as an energy source. We are, however, deeply troubled by any implication that it represents clean energy. Indeed, the nuclear industry has generated a reported 67,500 metric tons of highly radioactive waste, against which the earth and its inhabitants must be shielded for hundreds of thousands of years.