Voters in the U.S., Asia, and Europe are increasingly opting for nuclear power in response to rising electricity prices from the deployment of renewables like solar panels and wind turbines.
By a more than two-to-one margin (70% to 30%), voters in Arizona on Tuesday rejected a ballot initiative (Proposition 127) that would have resulted in the closure of that state’s nuclear power plant and in the massive deployment of solar and wind.
In Taiwan, momentum is building for a repeal of that nation’s nuclear energy phase-out. Grassroots pro-nuclear advocacy inspired a former president to help activists gather over 300,000 signatures so voters could vote directly on the issue on November 24.
And after a coalition of grassroots groups rallied in Munich, Germany last month to protest the closure of nuclear plants, a wave of mostly positive media coverage spread across Europe, inspiring a majority of Netherlands voters, and the nation’s ruling political party, to declare support for building new nuclear reactors.
Now, in the wake of rising public support for nuclear energy, a longstanding foe of nuclear power, the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, has reversed its blanket opposition to the technology and declared that existing U.S. nuclear plants must stay open to protect the climate.
Wow what a ridiculous article. In Ontario Canada our electricity rates have skyrocketed thanks to the high cost of nuclear power (2% of the bills are for solar contracts, 7% for wind, and over 50% is due to nuclear, and not only that…another $30 billion is going to be added in the coming weeks for work required at existing nuclear facilities). The craziness of the media saying green energy is causing high bills should be criminal, because it’s mis-information and that results in fear and then political change (the very definition of terrorism). The public is not paying for the green energy assets, they are only paying for the electricity they generate, and it’s not even 15% of the Ontario hydro bills. I bet we can deduce the same in every other part of the world. HOWEVER, the public absolutely pays for the nuclear assets and the electricity the nuclear assets generate. It’s completely mis-leading to say nuclear energy “costs less” than green energy, especially when they compare the cost per kWh paid to the generator, which has nothing to do with the actual cost of the electricity that the Consumer ends up paying. Sure they are related but it’s blatantly lying to the general public if you say nuclear costs less than solar because the cost per kWh is 4 cents for nuclear and 80 cents for solar. That’s a lie. The 4 cent kWh from nuclear cost 60 years of debt and global adjustment charges on the bills that your children will still be paying, and their children’s children. Stop the BS. and I would venture a guess to forensic auditors and the RCMP that if they were to start investigating the journalists that propagate such mis-information they might find reason to believe that the information is coming from nuclear lobbyists. But that’s just a guess, based on several years of investigation and interviews.
I have never seen a “grassroots nuclear advocacy group” this article sounds like Astrotrufing by a nuclear lobby.