NEI Nuclear Notes

Presidential candidate John Edwards was endorsed by Friends of the Earth Action last Sunday primarily because of his stance against nuclear power . Mr. Edwards, accepting the endorsement, said: “I am opposed to the building of new nuclear power plants, which is different from the position taken by Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. FOEA’s president Brent Blackwelder had this to say: “Edwards is razor sharp and clear: we don’t want to go the route of nuclear power plants,” said Mr. Blackwelder, whereas Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton wanted to explore the nuclear option. “We intend to run an independent campaign to educate the voters,” Mr. Blackwelder said. The canvassing, advertisements and seminars will take place mostly in New Hampshire , where the nuclear issue has resonance because of the nuclear power plant at Seabrook, as well as in other states. Educate the voters? I wonder if they’ll include these educational facts on nuclear in New Hampshire ? In 200...

Say hello to The Nautilus Forum . And thanks to them for digging up this clip of John Edwards stating his opposition to nuclear energy at a campaign event in South Carolina: Again, that's South Carolina, a state that gets 52% of its electricity from nuclear energy .

Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides and her husband watched John Edwards on Meet The Press on Sunday , and they weren't happy with what he had to say about nuclear energy and Yucca Mountain : My 30 year old Hispanic husband and I watched Tim Russert this past Sunday and were incredibly disappointed with the uneducated statement John Edwards made concerning Yucca Mountain. We are both nuclear engineers who are proud to work as environmentalist on a daily basis to supply the needed electricity for our country. I will gladly vote for a candidate who supports a national call for conservation, but I cannot support a candidate who does not understand the fundamental basis nuclear power supplies for our energy security. I became a nuclear engineer because I believe the millennia generation will need to do more than just debate the energy question, but constantly work to solve it. My husband and I help create an emissions free base load energy supply for millions of US citizens. Nuclear Power...

MyDD has all the details. Click here for links to the interview. UPDATE : Here's the relevant segment of the transcript : MR. RUSSERT: Next stop is Nevada, January 19th. Big issue there is Yucca Mountain... SEN. EDWARDS: Yeah. MR. RUSSERT: ...the nuclear repository. You voted against making that a national repository, then you voted for making it a national repository, saying that... SEN. EDWARDS: And that’s starting to have a familiar ring. MR. RUSSERT: You voted—you voted for it before you voted against it. But the thing... SEN. EDWARDS: You said that, not me. MR. RUSSERT: But now you’re saying that maybe the nuclear waste should be stored locally where the waste was produced. Is that your position? SEN. EDWARDS: My position is that, that what’s happened with Yucca Mountain is there’ve been serious questions, including the, the possibility of lying and fraud in the scientific evidence of—that Yucca Mountain would work. I was always concerned, still am, about this nuclear waste...