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More Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy

By Eric McErlain
If I had to come up with a short list of pro-nuclear blogs, I'm pretty sure TreeHugger wouldn't make the list. In general, I think it's safe to say that most of their contributors range from neutral to overtly hostile when it comes to the question of nuclear energy.

The readers, however, seem to be a different story. Because whenever somebody attacks nuclear energy, supporters of the technology manage to chime in and fight the good fight. Take a look at just a few of the comments that were inspired to respond to a post at TreeHugger on the recent UCS report:
This report seems to focus only on older plants. So what about the Third and Fourth Generation nuclear plants being developed to replace the old? And "Chernobyl Like Disaster"? Please spare me the scare tactics.

[ ... ]

This article seems designed to turn up the FUD factor on nuclear power. Read the PM (Popular Mechanics) articles on new reactor designs.

[ ... ]

AS I have posted here before nuclear is no more expensive than other methods of energy production. The info is out there.
This is not the first time we've seen this, and it won't be the last. I know this evidence is simply anecdotal, but when combined with the public opinion data that NEI has been tracking for years, it's clear that something different is going on in the environmental movement today.

If you're out there, know that we're ready to talk. And we're ready right now.

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Comments

valiens said…
It's amazing to me the environmental movement hasn't embraced nuclear energy. It seems like the cleanest of all. There's this pervasive notion that older is better, fossil fuel, bicycles, horses. And technology is always bad/unnatural/worthy of suspicion. Their motives seem to come from somewhere other than realistic solution- and fact-based ideas.

Why is there still such a fearful attitude? What will it take to change it?
September 21, 2006 at 11:15 PM
Anonymous said…
Many years ago, the Sierra Club did support nuclear power plants as an alternative to building dams.

However, they now advocate magic as the best way to generate electricity.
September 25, 2006 at 9:19 AM
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