The current nuclear emergency in Japan underlines the need to transition to local power sources that are safe and sustainable. Writing in Artvoice, Michael Niman explains:
Global warming could radically transform the planet into something much less inhabitable. Peak oil could radically change society—and the change won’t be pleasant to live through. But nuclear power—now here’s something with the potential to render the whole planet uninhabitable. Nuclear waste is deadly—extremely deadly—for hundreds of thousands of years after it’s produced. We’ve produced hundreds of tons of this crap already and still have no clue what to do with it other than assuming we’ll have the wherewithal to babysit it for the next quarter of a million years through whatever chaos comes our way.
Transition Party USA 
#1 by Charlie Keil on March 14, 2011 - 5:51 pm
It is so much like preparing for war. If we have war material factories in every Congressional district, and we do!, then air-headed Congressional representatives will routinely vote for more of the same — “it means jobs.”
Nuke power plants, no matter how deadly, and for many tens of thousands of years, will be approved for billions just because, because. . . . well, we’ve already spent billions on it, and “it means jobs.” Producing poisons that will kill you and yours down the line, till the end of human time.