Эбби Луби - Nuclear Romance

Before saying good-bye, each promised to keep in touch. Lou truly wanted to forgive Owen, forget past grudges, and consider him a friend. As Lou hung up, he opened ALLPower’s blue-and-white glossy folder to the page Diana had highlighted. Now there’s a story.

The horrendous nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plants in March 2011 was the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 meltdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the Ukraine. In Nuclear Romance, an accident at the Japanese nuclear plants is not fully referenced, and at the time this book was released, the effects of the disaster were still unknown.

Three of the four Dai-Ichi plants at Fukushima had core meltdowns of radioactive fuel. In the news, images of huge explosions, raging fires, and massive evacuations stunned the world. Even today, the amount of radiation that has leaked into the ground and ocean from the plant continues to astound us.

Fukushima shows us the real dangers of nuclear power and has empowered many anti-nuclear groups and environmental organizations worldwide to fight for the closure of nuclear power plants. Many countries, including Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, have heeded the warnings of a growing populace and have moved to either abolish nuclear power or cut back construction of new reactors.

In the United States in 2011, however, plans for new reactors for utility companies in Georgia and South Carolina are going forward, pending the approval of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Of the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States, 66 have had their licenses renewed, and 18 reactors are currently up for relicensing. The NRC, the federal regulatory oversight agency for nuclear power, has never turned down a request for a license renewal. The United States has taken a pro-nuclear stance; because building a new nuclear plant costs approximately $6 billion to $8 billion, the feds have proposed over $50 billion in federal loan guarantees to utility companies who want to build new reactors.

Reporters who write about nuclear power are challenged by making the complicated, inner workings of nuclear reactors easy to understand. Every story has multiple layers that, given news formats, must either be omitted or briefly mentioned. For the inquisitive mind, the question would be “what’s not being told?” In 2007, the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, the model for the one in this novel, applied to the NRC to stay in operation for twenty more years. The two reactors, on the banks of the Hudson River just twenty-four miles from New York City, are among the oldest plants in the country, with a long history of accidents and radioactive leaks into the Hudson River. The plant’s continued and troubled operation has had a polarizing effect on the immediate community, the industry, and local politics. New York State, along with numerous organizations, has argued against the relicensing of the plant, but the decision is ultimately that of the NRC.

Copyright ©2011 by Abby Luby

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidences are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published by Armory New Media

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Original e-book edition published October 2011

ISBN: 978-1-935073-16-1