Nuclear-friendly statements of famous people

Am I happy about the need to rely on nuclear energy right now? No, but [as we] phase gradually out of fossil fuels, as we build up our sustainable green energy sector... we need a bridge.

It depends - If we have them already running, I feel that it is a mistake to close them down in order to focus on coal.

We should add more nuclear energy, or at least not shut down the nuclear power plants that we already have. There’s a strong movement to get rid of nuclear power plants which I think is not good.

Honestly the people against nuclear tend to be science illiterate. Don’t build on fault lines and volcanoes sure, but don’t pretend to be for clean energy while being against nuclear. It makes zero sense. Waste is a question but there are better and better ways to dispose.

Green energy alone is not enough to meet demand. We need a mix. That's why I'm in favor of nuclear energy. For me it is one of the safest methods of generating power.

The door is open for nuclear but we also have to make sure that community input and the technology is vetted. I do believe there is an open door there.

We may be the only source of high intelligence in the cosmos, but our act of avoiding nuclear power generation is one of auto-genocide. Nothing more clearly demonstrates the limits of our intelligence.

But I think we will have to curb our tendency to burn fossil fuels. And I think the big companies are beginning to realize themselves that you can’t make money that way. What replaces it, I hope, is nuclear, but probably they’ll mess about with renewables for awhile until they find their way to nuclear.

But I am a Green and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy. Even if they were right about its dangers, and they are not, its worldwide use as our main source of energy would pose an insignificant threat compared with the dangers of intolerable and lethal heat waves and sea levels rising to drown every coastal city of the world.

I didn’t come to the United States Senate as a big nuclear guy, but when I started looking at the urgency of climate change, I saw that over 50 percent of our non-carbon-producing power right now comes from nuclear.

All low-carbon primary energy sources, including renewables, nuclear and fossil with Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, have a role to play

Nuclear is ideal for dealing with climate change, because it is the only carbon-free, scalable energy source that’s available 24 hours a day. The problems with today’s reactors, such as the risk of accidents, can be solved through innovation.

I was on the other side of it then. But given this challenge we face today, and given the progress of fourth-generation nuclear, go for it. No other alternative. Zero emissions.

I think if we’re going to tackle global warming, I think nuclear power is the only way you can create massive amounts of power.

If stupid hippies hadn't killed nuclear power, we'd have nuclear power plants, safer and cheaper than coal-fired plants all over, and electric cars really would be zero emissions.

We are holding this hearing because nuclear energy must be a national priority. It provides about 20 percent of our nation’s electricity, and 63 percent of our emissions-free electricity. It is safe and extremely reliable. When cold winters hit the Northeast and the flow of natural gas is restricted, nuclear plants continue to provide electricity to residents, literally saving lives. When the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, nuclear is still providing essential baseload capacity. For any number of good reasons, nuclear has to remain part of the energy mix

It’s like half the people that were out there saying “No nukes! Shut down the power plants!” are now realizing nuclear is the best way to go for energy for the future. I think it’s natural to reexamine your beliefs as you age up.”

And for us to say ‘Oh we’re not going to use all the tools that we have to try to solve it’ is crazy. We have to use all of the things that we have at our disposal and clearly nuclear power, next generation nuclear power especially, has tremendous potential to be a big part of the solution.

But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.

Environmentalists have much less to fear in reality from the current nuclear power industry than they think, and much more to gain from new and planned reactor designs than they realize.

Please don’t get me wrong: I’m not trying to be pro-nuclear. I’m just pro-arithmetic.

The point is that waste is a solvable problem. There are a lot of scientists who are much more moderate and support nuclear power, but for some reason, they don't get heard. Relating simple facts about something's being safe doesn't get the same attention as telling people that something is scary and dramatic and dangerous.

I had my teeth examined when I was a little kid. I bet I had more radiation than I'd ever get around a nuclear plant for a year.