Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko (C) and fellow commissioners Kristine Svinicki (L) and George Apostolakis (R) wait for the beginning of a joint hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and Clean Air and Nuclear Safety December 15, 2011 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. | Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Former heads of nuclear regulatory bodies across Europe and the US put out a statement this week voicing their opposition to nuclear energy as a climate solution.
The debate over the benefits and risks of nuclear energy has been polarizing for years, but it’s escalating as world leaders work to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. On one side of the debate, some argue that renewables alone are too dependent on the weather to provide a consistent power supply. Nuclear technology, which today provides about half of America’s carbon-free electricity, can reliably back it up, they say. And new nuclear technology is unlikely to trigger disasters like those at Chernobyl and Fukushima that have frightened the public in the past,…
