“In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That’s the conviction that inspired Greenpeace’s first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change”. –Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace and chairman and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd., writing in the Washington Post
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FYI: In the full article linked above, Dr. Moore mentions other environmentalists who’ve called for a second look at nuclear power, including Stewart Brand, founder of The Whole Earth Catalog. Mr. Brand has also recently endorsed my techno-thriller novel about the inside world of nuclear power, “Rad Decision”. This book is available at no cost to readers – who seem to like it, judging from the comments they’re leaving on the home page. “Rad Decision” is written as an “airport paperback” and is a great way to learn about the good and bad of this energy source. (There’s plenty of both.) It’s based on my two decades in the US nuclear industry. http://RadDecision.blogspot.com . Not to curry favor, but one of the key positive characters is a first-generation Hispanic immigrant, BTW.
There’s brave talk coming out of the Congress and the power industry that we need very badly to resurrect nuclear power for central station electricity. I wholeheartedly agree, but the problem is going to be finding anyone under 60 who faintly remembers or even ever knew how to design a nuclear power station. The design of the last US nuclear plant was cranked out about 25 years ago. Most of the US nuclear engineering University programs have shut down. Most of the students in the few remaining (MIT, Penn State, NC State, Univ Tenn., Purdue, Cal Berkeley) are either foreigners or candidates for US Navy Submarine Service. When DOE decided to decommission and cleanup the antiquated Nuclear weapons sites, they had to hire French (Cogema & Framatome) and British (BNFL) firms. No US company could submit a credible proposal.
Maybe if we want Iran to stop we should send over Jane Fonda.