Nuclear renaissance

"Nuclear renaissance" is a term used by promoters of the nuclear industry and some journalists to describe a possible expansion of the nuclear power industry ostensibly as a 'solution' to global warming.

Nuclear renaissance skeptics
Some long time environmentalists, like Patrick Moore (a paid consultant for the U.S. Nuclear Energy Institute) and Stewart Brand, are now nuclear power advocates. Yet environmental organizations disagree that the development of nuclear power is an environmentally sound energy policy. When asked his opinion on proponents of nuclear power expansion, the highly regarded energy efficiency analyst Amory Lovins was blunt: "I think they haven't done their homework. And I keep asking for their analysis and not getting it, because I don't think they have one." Nuclear power, he argues, is no solution to global warming. "If you buy more nuclear plants, you're going to get about two to ten times less climate solution per dollar, and you'll get it about twenty to forty times slower" than efficient use of electricity, renewables and micropower, he said. Lovins is also dismissive of claims that a "nuclear renaissance" is sweeping the world. "It's a very carefully fabricated illusion. And the reason it isn't happening is there are no buyers. That is, Wall Street is not putting a penny of private capital into the industry, despite 100-plus percent subsidies."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Nuclear Boosters

External articles

 * Marianne Lavelle, "Nuclear Industry Eyes a Smaller Renaissance", U.S News & World Report, February 21, 2008.
 * Christian Parenti, "What Nuclear Renaissance?", The Nation, May 12, 2008.
 * Amory Lovins "Missing the Market Meltdown: Renewable energy is attracting Wall Street but nuclear power isn't. Why? Simple economics", Newsweek, May 26, 2008.
 * Amory Lovins and Imran Sheikh, "The Nuclear Illusion", Ambio, May 27, 2008. (Pdf)
 * Kristin Shrader-Frechette, "Five Myths About Nuclear Energy", America (magazine), June 23, 2008.
 * "Life after death: Nuclear power is clean, but can it overcome its image problem?", The Economist, June 19th 2008.
 * Jim Riccio, "Nuclear Power Crawling Forward", WorldWatch Institute, Ju8ne 2008. (Jim Riccio is a Nuclear Policy Analyst at Green­peace in Washington, DC.)
 * Curt Guyette, "Blast from the past: Nuclear power and the 2008 presidential campaign", Detroit Metro Times, August 13, 2008.
 * David Lowry, op/ed: "The nuclear industry's secret subsidies: The industry may well be 'back with a vengeance', but taxpayers could be unwittingly subsidising its growth," The Guardian (UK), September 4, 2008.
 * Tyson Slocum. "Nuclear’s Power Play: Give Us Subsidies or Give Us Death", Multinational Monitor, Volume 29, Number 2, September/October 2008.