 The   nuclear power industry's PR machine has long tried to cynically  hitch   its wagon to the climate crisis. As but one recent example, WAMU   (NPR's  Washington, D.C. station) has been, yet again, running regular   Nuclear  Energy Institute, NuScale (a so-called Small Modular Reactor   vendor),  and other atomic sales pitches, during major climate protection events in the nation's capital. Unfortunately, those who should know better    seem to be falling for it. The nuclear power lobby has long had its way    with Congress, the White House, and federal agencies like NRC, DOE, EPA, etc. But the likes of climate scientist James Hansen, and even 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben,    have not only fallen for it, they have joined the promotions. Even  CNN   host Van Jones, Obama's green jobs czar, recently praised U.S.  Senator   Cory Booker (D-NJ), a presidential candidate, for his "brave"  stand in   support of nuclear power. This, despite Booker's close  association  with Holtec    International, whose CEO made racist statements against his own   African  American and Puerto Rican workforce in Camden, NJ, just a year   ago,  and whose consolidated interim storage facility for 173,600   metric tons  of highly radioactive, irradiated nuclear fuel in   southeastern New  Mexico targets already heavily burdened Hispanic   communities, not far  from the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation. As   former EPA environmental justice head, Mustafa Ali, said on a Sept. 5, 2019 Democracy Now! interview,    the high-level radioactive waste shipments to such targeted,    environmentally unjust dump-sites out West, would themselves pass    through countless low income, people of color communities en route,    making this yet another environmental racism burden. As Beyond Nuclear    founding president Helen Caldicott, to be given a PSR lifetime    achievement award next month in D.C., put it 15 years ago, nuclear power is not the answer.    As Dr. Brice Smith of IEER put it in 2006, nuclear power costs too    much, and takes too long, to solve the climate crisis, and has a long    list of insurmountable risks all its own, from nuclear weapons proliferation, to catastrophic    releases of hazardous radioactivity, to the unsolved radioactive waste    dilemma. And as Dr. Arjun Makhijani of IEER put it in 2007, carbon-free and nuclear-free is the roadmap for U.S., and even global, energy policy.    Nuclear power cannot be allowed to hijack the Green New Deal! If it    does, it would be an irreversible, fatal mistake. It will not solve the    climate crisis. But it would waste the precious resources -- in time,    and money -- needed to implement genuine clean energy solutions to  the   climate crisis, namely renewables like wind and solar, and energy    efficiency, before it is too late.
The   nuclear power industry's PR machine has long tried to cynically  hitch   its wagon to the climate crisis. As but one recent example, WAMU   (NPR's  Washington, D.C. station) has been, yet again, running regular   Nuclear  Energy Institute, NuScale (a so-called Small Modular Reactor   vendor),  and other atomic sales pitches, during major climate protection events in the nation's capital. Unfortunately, those who should know better    seem to be falling for it. The nuclear power lobby has long had its way    with Congress, the White House, and federal agencies like NRC, DOE, EPA, etc. But the likes of climate scientist James Hansen, and even 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben,    have not only fallen for it, they have joined the promotions. Even  CNN   host Van Jones, Obama's green jobs czar, recently praised U.S.  Senator   Cory Booker (D-NJ), a presidential candidate, for his "brave"  stand in   support of nuclear power. This, despite Booker's close  association  with Holtec    International, whose CEO made racist statements against his own   African  American and Puerto Rican workforce in Camden, NJ, just a year   ago,  and whose consolidated interim storage facility for 173,600   metric tons  of highly radioactive, irradiated nuclear fuel in   southeastern New  Mexico targets already heavily burdened Hispanic   communities, not far  from the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation. As   former EPA environmental justice head, Mustafa Ali, said on a Sept. 5, 2019 Democracy Now! interview,    the high-level radioactive waste shipments to such targeted,    environmentally unjust dump-sites out West, would themselves pass    through countless low income, people of color communities en route,    making this yet another environmental racism burden. As Beyond Nuclear    founding president Helen Caldicott, to be given a PSR lifetime    achievement award next month in D.C., put it 15 years ago, nuclear power is not the answer.    As Dr. Brice Smith of IEER put it in 2006, nuclear power costs too    much, and takes too long, to solve the climate crisis, and has a long    list of insurmountable risks all its own, from nuclear weapons proliferation, to catastrophic    releases of hazardous radioactivity, to the unsolved radioactive waste    dilemma. And as Dr. Arjun Makhijani of IEER put it in 2007, carbon-free and nuclear-free is the roadmap for U.S., and even global, energy policy.    Nuclear power cannot be allowed to hijack the Green New Deal! If it    does, it would be an irreversible, fatal mistake. It will not solve the    climate crisis. But it would waste the precious resources -- in time,    and money -- needed to implement genuine clean energy solutions to  the   climate crisis, namely renewables like wind and solar, and energy    efficiency, before it is too late.