The AFF is an instance of religious propaganda which serves to reinforce belief in the all-powerful and saving nature of the

Nuclear. The 1ACs dedication to a peaceful form of nuclear power is a smokescreen for nuclear weapons. The nuclear technology endorsed by the AFF continues a dehumanizing world of death dealing absent value to life. Chernus 2006 /Ira, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder, When Nukes Kill, No One Counts the Victims, http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0427-31.htm/ First, its unnecessary. As Harvey Wasserman says: In pure economic terms, nukes are a horrendous investment. No reactor can be guaranteed not to melt. Nor can any be protected from terrorism. A rational combination of energy conservation and alternative renewable energy technologies can give us far more power than nuclear at far less cost and risk. Hundreds of people who study the subject closely have been confirming that truth for years. Yet these experts cant get their message out. The coal, gas, oil, and nuclear industries spend millions of PR dollars to make sure the public cant clearly hear the truth. Second, the nuclear energy industry has always been inextricably tied to nuclear weaponry. Though there is no convincing evidence that Iran plans to make nuclear weapons, the Bush administration is right about one thing. The same technology that a nation needs to produce nuclear power could eventually be used to produce nuclear weapons. The U.S. has already used nuclear power to hide its own nuclear weapons plans. In 1953, when President Dwight Eisenhower offered his famous Atoms for Peace proposal, he wasnt worried about an energy shortage. It was a cold war ploy. Ike wanted to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal. But he faced growing protests from European allies and a growing Soviet peace offensive. To neutralize those problems, he tried to create an image of the U.S. as a nation dedicated to peace. Thus was born the peaceful atom, your friend the atom, and all the gimmicks the nuclear industry has used ever since to mask the lethal reality of atomic fission. One thing couldnt be masked, though. To make new
nuclear weapons usable, the U.S., like other nations, has to test them. Testing in the atmosphere went on from 1945 to 1963. No one will ever know, or come close to knowing, how many people those tests killed. Once the atom is let loose the effects are literally

incalculable. Governments hardly even try to count the bodies accurately, because they know it cant be done. If the U.S.
does some day drop nuclear bombs on Iran, we will never hear any reports of the death toll. Of course that s just as true now, when the U.S. kills with conventional weapons in Iraq. As General Tommie Franks once said We dont do body counts. Other nations arent likely to do body counts, either. Well never know how many the Chinese killed in Tibet, or the Indonesians in East Timor, or the Turks in Kurdistan, or (on and on and on). Counting the victims of state violence has become merely a quaint habit of a bygone era. There are

plenty of practical reasons to stop the new nuclear power plants before they are built. Beyond that, there is a deeper moral reason. Nuclear technology, in peace or in war, is the perfect symbol for all the dehumanizing trends of the modern world. Its not just a coincidence that the rush to nuclear power is happening just as a whole new generation of nuclear weapons is being created in the U.S. Its all part of the same immoral mindset. When nukes kill, who counts? No one counts the victims because the victims dont count. A step back toward the cold-war-era embrace of the atom is a step away from a world that cares enough to count the dead. And a world that wont count the dead will never care enough to make every life count.