Why I changed my mind about nuclear power | Michael Shellenberger | TEDxBerlin

I'm shocked...

Like stunned...

I grew up in a firmly anti-nuke, Gerry Brown kinda household. My mom swears I didn't eat a grape until I was like five years old because she wasn't going to support the farmers against the migrant workers. There was always Bob Dylan playing on the record players, and nukes were nothing but death in waiting.

And nukes meant both nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

I remember visiting Marble Hill - a never-operational nuclear power plant in Southern Indiana - either during high school or college, and it freaked me out because nuclear power - which very nearly came to that power plant just an hour from my home - was a practical demon in a bottle. I'm pretty sure that my mom was one of the folks protesting against Marble Hill's construction in the early 1980s.

But it looks like my mom just might've been wrong.

The video shown above presents pretty strong evidence that nuclear power might be the better alternative to solar or wind power.

I'm going to have to do some more research.

And the video below - also from Michael Shellenberger, who appears to have a decent number of bona fides - tells the story of how nuclear power shifted from being an environmentalist's darling to being everybody's boogeyman.