Institute for Southern Studies
As President Obama prepares to deliver his State of the Union address tonight, here’s a snapshot of some of the challenges facing Southern states — the very places Obama is having the roughest time.
But first, a little political trivia: Newly-elected GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell will be the third Virginian to deliver the SOTU response in the last five years. In 2006, Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine did the honors, and in 2007 it was Sen. Jim Webb. Message: Yes, Virginia, you are a swing state!
On to some signs of the state of our region:
SOUTHERN STATE OF THE UNION INDEX
Out of 13 Southern states,* number with unemployment rates over 10%: 8
Percent of African-Americans unemployed nationally: 16.4%
Percent of African-Americans unemployed in South Carolina: 20.4% (#1 in country)
Of 10 states with the lowest median income, number that are in the South: 8
Of 10 states with the highest number of occupational fatalities, number in the South: 5
Education spending per pupil in the state of New York: $15,981
Education spending per pupil in Tennessee: $7,113
Of 15 states with highest percentage of population incarcerated, number in the South: 11
Of 15 states with the highest percentage of population without health insurance, number in the South: 8
Of 20 Congressional districts containing the highest percentage of residents without health care, number in Florida and Texas: 15
Percent of the population of Mississippi enrolled in Medicaid: 21.2% (#1 in country)
Percent of West Virginia population enrolled in Medicare: 17.4% (#1 in country)
Rank of Texarkana, Arkansas/Texas, among U.S. metro areas having the highest percentage of their health insurance market monopolized by one company: 1
Percent of those enrolled in TRICARE, the federally-backed health insurance program for active-duty military and retirees, that are in Southern states: 47%
Number of Congressional seats and Electoral College votes Southern states are expected to gain after the 2010 Census: 7
Rank of North Carolina and South Carolina among states with biggest increase in Latino/Hispanic population: 1, 2
Months since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast: 53
Number of vacant or unoccupied residential addresses in New Orleans as of September 2009: 61,310 **
Of 15 states emitting highest amount of toxic releases into the environment, number in the South: 7
Of 10 states with lowest voter turnout in 2008, number in the South: 6
Of 10 states that saw the biggest increase in voter turnout between 2004 and 2008, number in the South: 6
Of 13 Southern states, number that set 30-year records for voter turnout in 2008: 10
President Obama’s net approval rating nationally, according to the latest Research 2000/DailyKos poll: +10
His net approval rating in the South: -48
Clearly, President Obama has his work cut out for him in the South — in more ways than one.
* The ISS list of Southern states includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
** Although a shocking statistic, it’s also important to acknowledge the good news: “The share of New Orleans residential addresses that are unoccupied fell from 33 percent to 29 percent [between 2008 and 2009]. This is in contrast to many cities around the country where blight is growing or has declined only slightly.”
Nuclear ‘renaissance’ or ‘retreat’? France is not the example
Thursday, January 28th, 2010By Linda Gunter
Beyond Nuclear
It is perhaps no accident that the nuclear power industry chose a French word – “renaissance” – to promote its alleged comeback. Attached to this misapplied moniker are a series of fallacious suggestions that nuclear energy is “clean,” “safe” and even “renewable.” And, in keeping with its French flavor, a key argument in the industry’s propaganda arsenal is that the U.S. should follow the “successful” example of the French nuclear program.
France serves as a convenient sound bite for politicians and others advocating a nuclear revival (hypocritically evoked by many of the same people who insisted on “Freedom Fries” at the start of the Iraq War). A failure to challenge this facile falsehood has cemented the myth of a French nuclear Utopia in the minds of the public. It masks a very different reality.
France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. However, this alone does not constitute a success. Rather, it results in the production of an enormous amount of radioactive waste that, as is the case for all other nuclear countries, has nowhere to go.
France has no operating geological repository for nuclear waste. To date, therefore, it has resorted to reprocessing, a highly contaminating chemical process that separates uranium and plutonium while releasing large quantities of liquid and aerial radioactivity into the environment. These wastes have rendered the seabed near the French La Hague reprocessing center on the Normandy coast equivalent to radioactive waste. Liquid radioactive contamination from La Hague has been found in the Arctic Circle, while radioactive gases such as krypton 85 have been tracked around the world.
However, contrary to myth, reprocessed French waste is not “recycled.” The hottest waste, about 4 percent of the total, is stored at La Hague, along with about 81 tonnes of separated – and proliferation-friendly – plutonium (1 percent of the total). The remaining 95 percent, mostly uranium, is stored at another nuclear center, Pierrelatte, in southern France. Rather than “recycled,” this waste is simply transferred from La Hague operator, Areva, to the French electricity utility, Électicité de France (EDF). France does not have the technology to re-enrich this uranium but some of it is exported to Russia which does.
Nuclear energy has not gained France energy independence. France imports all uranium used in its 58 reactors – having abandoned the last of its 210 uranium mines in 2001. These latter also produced a large waste stream, including tailings (radioactive rocks and soils) that have been used to pave children’s playgrounds and public parking lots.
Today, French uranium is imported largely from Niger where Areva – which, despite its corporate appearance, is 90 percent government-owned – has mined for 40 years. Its legacy in one of the poorest countries on the planet is one of depleted and contaminated water, wide dispersal of radioactive dust and discarded radioactive metals that have been sold in local markets and used in homes.
Nor can nuclear meet all French electricity needs. France imports coal-powered electricity from Germany at peak times, because of its heavy use of electric home-heating. During heat waves and droughts, the French have been forced to power down or close more than a third of their nuclear plants, which rely on water sources such as rivers and lakes for cooling.
None of this has deterred Areva or EDF from driving aggressively into new nuclear markets, especially the U.S., where Aerva is promoting its huge Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR), with seven targeted at six U.S. sites. Since new reactors are too expensive to build unless federally funded, EPRs in the U.S. could result in American tax dollars flowing to the French government.
However, French nuclear success overseas has proved as elusive as it is at home. All but two of the U.S. EPRs are now on the back burner or canceled altogether. A recent joint report from the British, Finnish and UK nuclear safety authorities challenged the safety of the unproven EPR design. The two EPR flagship construction sites in Finland and France have experienced cost overruns and delays. The Finnish Olkiluoto site is more than three years behind schedule, with cost estimates soaring from $3.6 billion at pre-construction to more than $8 billion currently. Technical errors have plagued both sites.
These problems are by no means unique to the French nuclear industry. They typify the nuclear “renaissance” as a whole, which resembles more of a retreat, a word with decidedly less positive connotations when applied to France.
There are some fine French fashions to be followed – from camembert to haute couture. Nuclear power just doesn’t happen to be one of them.
Gunter is co-founder of Beyond Nuclear and specializes in researching the French nuclear sector. She is also the media and development director for Beyond Nuclear. This editorial was provided by American Forum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational organization that supplies the media with the views of state experts on major public concerns in order to stimulate informed discussion.
Tags: nuclear power, South Carolina
Posted in National News/Commentary, Network News/Events, SC News/Commentary | No Comments »