Greenpeace Co-founder lauds new nuclear plant

Greenpeace Co-Founder Lauds New Nuclear Power Plant

Thu 21 Jun 2007
Byline: Glenn Beck

BECK: The president is in Alabama today checking out the first nuclear power plant to successfully get a new reactor in 20 years. Yes.

See, I know that nuclear power isn’t as Oscar worthy as Al Gore ‘s approach to the energy crisis. You know, changing your light bulbs or driving a super sexy Prius. But it is practical, and when it comes to breaking our dependence on foreign oil, isn’t that really what we need?

Patrick Moore is chairman and chief scientist of Green Strategies (ph).

Patrick, nuclear energy, you know, I said this on the air a couple of times. I’m not even going to listen to these — these, you know, global warming people until they actually say, “Nuclear power, I’ll consider it.”

It’s a good option.

PATRICK MOORE, CO-FOUNDER, GREENPEACE: Absolutely, Glenn. It’s really quite ironic that the people who are most concerned about climate change and carbon emissions from fossil fuels are against the one technology that is doing the most to reduce carbon emissions in the whole of the United States.

BECK: You were a co-founder of Greenpeace. You left when it — when you realized, wait a minute, some of this stuff that you’re against is really good for the environment. Am I wrong?

MOORE: No, you’re not wrong. I found that my fellow Greenpeacers sort of went of in the direction that I just couldn’t justify with my scientific education. And since then, I’ve come to realize that we made the mistake of lumping the peaceful use of nuclear technology in with the destructive use for nuclear weapons. And we shouldn’t have done that.

BECK: Yes.

MOORE: We should have had the brains to make the distinction at the time. And a lot of these guys are still stuck in the ’70s, and they’ve invested so much of their energy into convincing their followers that nuclear energy is wrong that they can’t make a quick about-face.

I’m certain that eventually the environmental movement will come to realize nuclear energy is one of the main technologies that can get us off fossil fuels.

BECK: You know, it kills me how unreasonable people are. Because you know, conservatives and liberals, they can agree on an awful lot. And you know, all of us love the planet. We want to take care of it, et cetera, et cetera. But you’ve got to bend someplace.

And the same people who are, you know, saying Johnny Depp is just the greatest human being that ever lived because he moved to France, which is a paradise on earth. France has nuclear power.

MOORE: Yes, France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy. That puts the lie to the people who say it’s too expensive, because French nuclear rates are not unreasonable.

And the same with the 20 percent of electricity being produced in the United States by nuclear energy today. It’s being produced at the lowest cost of any of
the major electricity sources.

BECK: They also say, though, that it’s not safe, which is another lie.

MOORE: Well, actually, the U.S. Bureau of Labor says it’s safer to work in the nuclear industry than it is in either real estate or financial services. In other words, it’s safer to work in a nuclear plant than it is on Wall Street.

BECK: Holy cow. And solar power, you know, that’s the one everybody says, that’s just great, and everything else. It’s a lot more expensive than nuclear energy.

MOORE: It’s like five to ten times as expensive, and it goes out when the sun goes down, whereas nuclear power runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s just — there’s no way that solar or even wind, which is not
as expensive as solar, but it’s also intermittent.

There’s no way they can actually substitute for continuous power sources like coal and gas and hydro and nuclear, and we’ve got to reduce our coal and gas consumption.

We’ve pretty much built all the hydro capacity there is. Nuclear is really the main option that does not produce carbon dioxide or air pollution.

BECK: I’ve got to tell you, Patrick, you are, you know — you’re an environmentalist that I can actually have a conversation with. I appreciate a reasoned conversation with you. Thank you.

MOORE: Thank you very much.