A clean future doesn’t revert to nuclear

Kingston, N.Y.: Gov. Hochul wants our utility bills and taxes to subsidize a “nuclear reliability backbone” for New York. In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra: “It’s like déja vu all over again.”

In the 1970s, we decided that nuclear power was a bad idea. “No nukes!” we cried. Well, nothing has changed in 50 years. It’s the same technology. If they build little “mini-me” reactors, we have 10 times as many versions of the same problems at 10 times as many vulnerable sites. It’s still catastrophically dangerous and still not “clean.” What happens to that nuclear waste? We didn’t have an answer then and we don’t have one now. What we didn’t have in the ’70s were safe, proven means of sustainable energy generation and back-up storage. Solar, wind and batteries cost a fraction of nuclear energy. The power they generate costs utility customers a fraction of the price, and what’s a terrorist going to do with a solar panel?

With political will and real leadership, renewables can be brought online in a year or two. Nuclear takes 10 to 15 years. And does anyone believe these projects will be built at anywhere near budget? Those fossil fuel and nuclear industry lobbyists must be giving away a lot of money in Albany! The rest of us can’t afford any part of new nukes.

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