It was Wall Street, not environmentalists, that put the kibosh to nuclear power: McKibben

Michael Allan McCrae | December 9, 2012 | 1:35 am Energy Uranium 

People aren’t looking to nuclear power as a solution to global warming because building a plant is just too expensive, says American environmentalist and author Bill McKibben.

“Given what happened in Fukushima it seems entirely unlikely to me you are going to convince people to put these in,” McKibben told the Daily Dish in a recent  interview.

“[But] it wasn’t really environmentalists that put the kibosh on nuclear power, it was pretty much Wall Street. Nobody was willing to pay for these things.

“It’s like burning $20 bills to generate electricity.”

McKibben admits there are few places like China where nuclear power is being built “for a variety of reasons.”

“But even in China they are putting in vastly more renewable energy than nuclear power because they can do it quickly, and they can do it economically.”

Image by Greenpeace Finland

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4 Comments

  • aligatorhardt

    Even solar power is cheaper than nuclear power and wind is much cheaper. There is no reason to accept the risks and costs of nuclear power. Xcel runs into nuclear economics

  • Mark B

    I’m sorry, but where is Bill getting his information from??? Nuclear is one of the cheapest forms of electricity around. About 7 to 8 times cheaper than solar or wind power. The upfront costs are large installing the plant, but after that, the fuel is all but for free. Fukushima is really old reactor technology. You can’t even compare it to today’s standards. This is like saying today’s cars are like the first car created by Ford, or todays computers are like the Commodor 64. Come on Bill, you can do better than that. I’m sorry, but misleading the public like this is a shame and cause us to walk away from good solutions. I’m dissapointed.

  • Alex H. Lamarche

    China is looking at every possible solutions to avoid producing electricity from coal due to the environmental impact. Right now in China, some of the crops are covered by ashes from the coal plant.

    Compare to the actual situation Nuclear plant are a much more cleaner choice, and even compared to hydroelectricity it still is.

  • Rolf Westgard

    Wind and solar have not re[laced a base load plant anywhere on earth. China is building nuclear because it is powerful, reliable, and economic.

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