How fear of nuclear power is hurting the environment | Michael Shellenberger

"We're not in a clean energy revolution; we're in a clean energy crisis," says climate policy expert Michael Shellenberger. His surprising solution: nuclear. In this passionate talk, he explains why it's time to overcome longstanding fears of the technology, and why he and other environmentalists believe it's past time to embrace nuclear as a viable and desirable source of clean power.

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[antonlanthier]

I'm shocked France was not mentioned once in this video. 76% of our energy comes from nuclear plants, and we have had a large nuclear energy program since the early 1970s, without a single incident.

[bmatth]

I read a quote once that sums this presentation, and ppls fear of nuclear perfectly. " we live in a world exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science or technology.

[AlexIr]

"By contrast the waste that we don't control, from energy production, we call it pollution and it kills 7 million people a year"
This.

[averagejoe]

Germany: we need to end global warming
Also Germany: We need to ban all nuclear power

[enceladus]

3:30 Californians care more about being seen as environmentalists than actually improving the environment.

[hotpotato]

“The planet is fine. The people are fucked.” -George Carlin

[tippity-toptown]

I feel that a lot of our nuclear problems would be solved if Mr. Burns just fired Homer.

[sempergumby]

Last time I checked, massively more people have been killed by airplane crashes than by nuclear power.

There was a time when people commonly feared air travel but people began to look at the facts v. misplaced fears.

If we can just begin to replace misplaced fears with facts regarding nuclear power, we can begin to move back in the right direction.

[KafshakTashtak]

Fun fact: For the same amount of energy, the radiation hazard of fly ash from burning coal is more than radiation hazard from a nuclear power plant. In fact if you separate the uranium in the coal, and use it in a nuclear power plant, you obtain more energy than burning that coal.

[Lewis]

The illiterate are the most vocal, ignorance seems very attractive in today's world.

[-gemberkoekje-]

Also the difference between nuclear waste and waste from coal, is that nuclear energy is a solid that can be stored, but fossil fuel power is just being pumped into the sky

[tuongpham]

Anyone here because of the "green new deal" wanting to reduce nuclear power?

[DGill]

Retired Physics teacher. Huge frustration; I've been explaining to young pre-adults about nuclear and the huge advantage for decades. Just no one seems to get it.

[bryanmartinez]

Nuclear is splitting apart those poor atom families
How dare they take their children electrons as Nucleus and Protons are being murdered!
Atom families matter!!!

[krixig]

I actually work at a nuclear generation facility, and although it might come off as an obvious bias, I can't say that Ive ever seen anything occur here that makes me question the validity of the technology. As the speaker said, draconian politics and public superstition regarding the technology are the spears that bring these giants down and its a shame. Perhaps another great irony is that the surrounding area on the company property is a veritable nature preserve. Foxes, mink, turkey, whitetail, you name it and its well represented and cant be hunted.

[CJW]

Decent presentation I'd say. Not great, not terrible. I'd give it a 3.6 out of 15, 000 roentgen.

[justdoit]

the problem with TED talks is that the audience, direct or through recordings, is already relatively educated on these subjects.. this doesn't reach the general population to give any intended result/change

[StudioAnnLe]

I heard a Ted Talk from Taylor Wilson, the young nuclear genius, and he was championing Thorium reactors because they produce much less waste then the traditional uranium powered plants. I don't know too much about this, but power is one of the biggest resources that is needed to propel our civilization forward.

[joshuak]

I work for a company that operates several hydro dams, a solar farm, a wind farm, and a nuclear power plant. All of this energy is safe and as close to carbon free as you can get when generating electricity. Throughout the day I check our power generation numbers. Every single day our nuclear plant is operating at 100% power, but our solar and wind output vary greatly. Four days this week our wind farm sat at zero output...zero. Out of 92 MWe possible. Our solar farm obviously only works during the day.

The dams were what surprised me. Our dams, with a combined capacity of 1300 MWe only operates at 100% during the spring. In the summer they have to cut back to maintain water level. In the summer... when power demand is at it's highest. The company had to issue a "No Touch" order to the nuclear plant, cancelling all none essential scheduled maintenance because if we shut down unexpectedly we will take down the entire grid.

Nuclear is safe and reliable, something solar and wind will never be. Go do some research and tour a nuclear power plant. These plants, built decades ago, are incredibly safe. The only replacement I can imagine being better than these old plants would be new, more advanced, nuclear plants.

[Gangstrever]

Just don't put comrade Dyatlov in charge next time