Environment & Energy

What I discovered was that those consequences - which I anticipated, based on ignorant antinuke hype that I uncritically believed, would result in a vast death toll, perhaps on a scale of tens of thousands of people, if not far more - was nothing like that.

(For the record I was working with radioactive materials at the time, but even so, I believed this nonsense.)

I have thus been pronuclear for more than 30 years, spending more and more time understanding nuclear technology at an ever deepening level. I can hold my own with anyone here - with references, no less, as opposed to rote sloganeering - on this topic.

When I came to DU, as a Democrat who weighed environmental issues as my prime concern, in particular what was then called "climate change" but now is better and more accurately described as "ongoing extreme global heating," unsurprisingly, I met a lot of resistance to my views on nuclear energy, because, regrettably, we were trained on our end of the political spectrum to be antinuclear. It was "cool" on the left to spout antinuclear slogans, something I knew when I was a young and dumb antinuke myself.

Nevertheless, I persisted.

There is, of course, still some hostility to reality here, generally from rote thinkers, for whom I am hard pressed to manage any respect (thank goodness for the ignore list), but I would say I am seeing a huge change in attitudes on our end of the political spectrum, toward what I personally regard as the last best hope of the planet, nuclear power. We are, on the left, I think, 'fessing up to the indisputable reality that opposing nuclear energy was (and is) a huge mistake.

Recent Democratic Presidents, Obama and Biden, both were supportive of nuclear energy, the charge being led by Obama's first Energy Secretary, Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, who pushed to get the Vogtle project, which will be serving Americans for generations to come, started. (Obama, however, did put the fool on Gregory Jaczko on the NRC, a grotesque mistake, but despite this fool, Vogtle is operating and now saving lives.)

Biden called on Nuclear Engineering Professor Kathryn Huff as Undersecretary of Energy, to get his excellent nuclear energy policy started. She's returned to academia now, but she did a lot to help save the planet in her three year tenure. This was a high quality appointment demonstrating a concern for expertise. Many other Democratic politicians are coming around, as shown by the 88-2 vote in the Senate for the Advance Act in support of nuclear energy, and of course, Gretchen Whitmer's efforts to restart a shut nuclear plant in Michigan.

As I've noted elsewhere, the Biden administration has been the most supportive of nuclear energy than any Presidential administration in half a century.

Much of this comes in under the rubric of "too little, too late" of course - antinukism in my opinion has left the planet in flames - but if the best time was decades ago, the second best time is now.

We had to start somewhere to undo the damage done by antinuke fear and ignorance, and thanks to President Biden, we have.