Greenpeace Founder Supports Increased Nuclear Power

The Daily Northwestern [http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com] reports:

When Patrick Moore co-founded Greenpeace International in 1971, he was firmly against the use of nuclear energy to power Americans' lives. Fifteen years later, Moore split from the environmental organization when he began studying nuclear energy more in-depth.

The activist spoke Monday night at the McCormick Tribune Center about America's need to increase its use of nuclear power.

"I lost my fear of nuclear energy when I started studying it more closely," Moore said. "It is one of the safest technologies we ever invented - it's an excellent job-creation technology."

Moore took time during his speech to reflect on his experience with Greenpeace, an organization that is now known for its outspoken advocacy for environmental issues. He said Greenpeace was "quite a ride - we got a lot of things right in the early years."

"In retrospect … we painted 'nuclear' with too broad a brush," Moore said. "We lumped nuclear energy with nuclear war as if 'nuclear' was evil. We were young and enthusiastic and we made the mistake of ignoring the benefits of nuclear energy."

Moore dispelled myths about nuclear energy and discussed the safety and practicality of nuclear technology.

He cited a study which found that 52,000 nuclear plant workers had fewer occurrences of cancer and disease and enjoyed a longer lifespan than that of the general population. The nuclear industry is "safer to work in than real estate and financial services," he said.

Moore is now the co-chairman of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition and chairman of Greenspirit Strategies.

"I want to promote nuclear energy and this is a vehicle to do it," Moore said. "The purpose of Greenspirit to build a strong grassroots coalition which includes industry labor politicians of all stripes and community leaders to support new nuclear plants."

He said Greenspirit is "based more on science and logic" than Greenpeace, which he said "depends on scare tactics where there's no evidence."

http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2009/04/07/Campus/Greenpeace.CoFounder.Lauds.Benefits.Of.Nuclear.Energy-3700036.shtml

Additional resources on nuclear energy:

www.pronucleardemocrats.blogspot.com
http://www.ecolo.org/
http://left-atomics.blogspot.com/