Nukes and Climate Change: The Cost of Our Choices

I taped a show with host Marvin Scott and fellow guest Peter Wolf to discuss what happened at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant disaster 40 years ago this week. The show aired on April 2, on WPIX-11 as a News Closeup episode. A video is available here.

The inevitable, important question of the relationship of climate and nuclear power came up. Here’s what we said: Nuclear power still comes with a small risk of catastrophic accidents. Nukes are more expensive than every other no-carbon alternative—efficiency, wind, solar, etc. Existing nukes make electricity with no new direct emissions, but new nukes are a different, more speculative and more expensive thing entirely. 

I didn’t say it, but here is what I really think: Getting on nukes to get off carbon emissions is like taking up heroin to get off smoking cigarettes. 

What I did say is that nukes always make me think of Godzilla. We don’t need new dinosaurs 🦕; I want to be like the mammals—small, quick, and clever. 

Karl R. Rábago | Executive Director, Pace Energy and Climate Center | energy.pace.edu | @rabagoenergy