„Barack Obama wants you to know that nuclear power is good for you. He really and truly does. He’s warned of “the worst consequences of climate change” unless new nuclear plants sprout from the land. And of countries like China eating our technological lunch. And of unemployment getting even worse, due to the loss of good, green jobs. And of nothing less than “our economy, our security, and the future of our planet” being at risk.
He’s announced $8.3 billion in federal-loan guarantees to build a pair of nuclear reactors in Georgia (the first in the U.S. in more than 30 years), and said there will be plenty more where that came from. He’s appointed as energy secretary a Nobel laureate who’s pledged to “aggressively” expand nuclear power; nominated as his new commerce secretary the ex-C.E.O. of a power company that thought the world of its nuclear plants (including the two on the California coast adjacent to earthquake faults); and had successive White House energy czarinas who use the modifiers “safe, clean, reliable” when speaking of nuclear power — exactly like the ads of the industry’s trade association.