Can nuclear power address climate change quickly and on budget?
Peter Bradford, commissioner (1977-1982), Nuclear Regulatory Commission: The greatest concern about the push toward nuclear power today is that it is being put in the context of solving the problems of climate change and the public is sometimes told that nuclear power is somehow a magic bullet. Nuclear industry television commercial: “We need reliable energy for the 21st century, but we also need clean air. With nuclear energy, you can have both. Nuclear, the clean air energy.” Peter Bradford: When you get that kind of pressure behind nuclear power, you get pressure on the regulators to take shortcuts on safety, you get pressure on the economic regulators to assign the risks to the customers. You get pressure to overlook the alternatives that might provide as much or more of the solution at lower risks of safety and economic sort and you really are sort of recreating the climate of the 1970’s. Walter Cronkite, CBS News (1979): “Good evening. The world has never known a day quite like t
