Is it Time to Consider Nuclear Energy in the Fight Against Climate Change?
What’s the best way to combat climate change?
James Hansen — one of America’s leading atmospheric scientists, who, in the late 1980s, was the first to tell Congress about the danger of global warming — says it is nuclear power. Since it accounts for more than 60 percent of America’s carbon-free electricity and is available around the clock, nuclear power is an obvious answer — one we’ve known for some time now. But it’s nice to hear it come from a highly regarded climatologist like Hansen.
With five new nuclear plants under construction in the U.S. and a new generation of small modular reactors on the horizon, nuclear power is positioned to play a central role in the effort to achieve a low-carbon energy future, despite a small, but vocal, opposition.