But what I am losing sleep over is what isn’t doing its job: the Radiation Monitors at U.S. Ports and Border Crossings, which we now learn are not capable of detecting Highly Enriched Uranium if it’s smuggled into our country.  

Two of the biggest brains at NRDC, Thomas B. Cochran, Ph.D., senior scientist and Wade Green Chair for Nuclear Policy; and Matthew G. McKinzie, Ph.D., senior scientist in the nuclear program, have an article out today in Scientific American that shows that Americans are spending billions for machines that don’t reliably detect the most dangerous nuclear material, making it possible for terrorists to smuggle in the uranium needed to build a nuclear bomb in the United States.

And to think, I was busted trying to bring a coconut back from Jamaica when I was 14. 

In the article, Tom (pictured at left) and Matthew tell the tale of their “coke can,” a slug of depleted uranium about the size of, you guess it, a can of coke, that traveled across the US border undetected by the supposedly-sophisticated detectors you and I bought with our tax dollars to protect ourselves and our families from nuclear terrorism.

Tom and Matthew go to prove that their coke can actually sent out a stronger signal to the detectors than highly enriched uranium would have, and then they reveal some really frightening calculations to show that even a small amount of highly enriched uranium could be used to make a crude bomb that could do massive damage in any U.S. city.  

But don’t fear, Tom and Matthew have a solution, and a pretty sensible one at that. Rather than invest in expensive machines that don’t work, why not spend our money securing the highly enriched uranium that’s strewn about the world, unprotected from terrorists who wish to do us harm? 

There are two paths to making this happen: securing so-called “loose nukes” in other countries and making sure that highly enriched uranium is also under lock-and-key here in the US. To that end, NRDC just filed a petition for rulemaking with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requesting that NRC establish a date after which it would no longer license the civil use of highly enriched uranium or authorize its export. (link)

By doing that, and working with other countries to secure uranium abroad, we would be a lot safer than by buying more detectors that provide nothing but a false sense of security. 

Read all about it here.

We yelled ourselves hoarse getting the nuclear loan guarantees out of the energy bill passed by Congress last week. Folks thought there was no way we could do it, but we did. The bill passed without a dime for nukes. 

But now, a whole week after that vote to make investments in new, renewable energy, we hear that Congress – that’s right, the one with the Democratic majority elected a year ago to bring change to Washington– has stuck the $25 billion for loan guarantees in the omnibus spending bill. This is an eighth night of Hanukah/early Christmas present from Congress to an undeserving and degenerative industry. This is a gargantuan public policy failure. And guess who pays? You and me.  

How much is $25 billion in Washington, you ask? Are we talking about real money here? Well, President Bush is asking for $7.2 billion to fund the EPA for the next three years. So $25 billion in radioactive pork is three times what it costs to run the EPA for three years. Yeah, it’s real money.  

What’s funny – the pathetic kind of funny – is that both the President and Congress are hollering about getting rid of pork, slashing earmarks, returning to the halcyon days of small government. Do where does $25 billion in loan guarantees for a handful of our nation’s most profitable companies fit in the quest for fiscal common sense?  

Should Americans invest in energy? Absolutely. Clean renewable energy – the energy of the future – that will beat back global warming and free us from dependence on the Middle East. Wind. Solar. Geothermal. The next generation of cellulosic biofuels I like to call “grassoline” that will be cleaner, cheaper and far less resource intensive than corn ethanol. If we’re going to spend public money on energy, these are projects that deserve it.  

As for the nuclear industry, how about borrowing money on the open market like every other business has to? What? No one will loan you money? How come? Oh, because you probably can’t pay it back? Because your business model isn’t viable? Well then, should you really be borrowing money? Can’t build new nukes without it? Well, maybe you should look into building something else. Ever hear of wind turbines?