MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript
Interview
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REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, again, it"s not protesters that have hurt nuclear power over the last 30 years. It"s investors.
After Three Mile Island, after Chernobyl, investors, Wall Street just walked away from nuclear power. So, just as some confidence had begun to be built in the industry, we now have the worst accident in the history of the world, with the exception of Chernobyl.
So, I think that what we"re about to see is a dramatic rise in the risk premium for Wall Street to invest in nuclear power plants. They have already said all along that they won"t build any nuclear power plants unless the taxpayers guarantee it, which is the condition which the nuclear industry and Wall Street have extracted from the last couple of Congresses.
But this makes it even more dangerous out in the marketplace. So, I think that it was never going to be a large part of the electricity mix in our country going forward. I think this is going harm it even more.
MATTHEWS: Congressman, let"s take a look at a map that shows the risky earthquake areas in our country. The red areas are the highest risk. And we can see them out near the San Andreas Fault obviously on the West Coast.
Here"s a map of the 104 active nuclear power plants over--setting that in our country. They"re mostly in eastern half of the country. And here are those two maps together showing the quake-prone areas and the plants themselves.
Have we been careful to array our plants away from the earthquake zones?
MARKEY: No, we have not.
For example, the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California is only built to withstand a 7.0 earthquake. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a 7.8 earthquake. The Diablo Canyon plant in California was built on an earthquake fault, which, by the way, was not discovered until after the whole plant had been designed, and Shell was out--Shell oil was out drilling for oil, and they found the fault.
The same thing is true down in Southeastern United States, another earthquake-prone area. So, we have not avoided them. And, in fact, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site is right on an earthquake fault. So, obviously, over the years, there"s I think been a little bit of wishful thinking that an earthquake could not occur in the United States, but we"re getting a very serious warning from Japan that we should not believe that humanity can trump Mother Nature.
MATTHEWS: What..
MARKEY: And if Mother Nature decides to strike, we will have big problems.
MATTHEWS: This has quite been a object lesson for us all. And it may get worse.
Congressman, what is a good, smart, prudent move to make now, if you were a centrist on this issue? Is there such a thing as a centrist on this issue?
MARKEY: I do not believe that confidence will be high in nuclear power, unless the centrist steps back and says that we must do a complete reexamination of the premise upon which we build nuclear power plants in our country, that we build true defense and depth into the new facilities, and, by the way, that we review the latest, almost approved design at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Westinghouse AP1000 design, that one of the top scientists at the regulatory commission is saying is so vulnerable, that it could shatter like a glass cup.
So, if boosterism replaces common sense and rationality, then that boosterism is going to lead to a catastrophe for the industry financially, because the public will not trust the experts, unless the experts can convince the public that they are taking these warnings very seriously.
MATTHEWS: Well, it"s good to have you on, Congressman. I know you"re one of the few people in this country that has taken the nuclear danger of nuclear energy seriously for all these decades. Thank you for coming on.
MARKEY: Thank you.
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