Should America include new nuclear power in its battle against climate change?

Climate One conversations feature oil companies and environmentalists,

Republicans and Democrats, the exciting and the scary aspects of the climate challenge.

I'm Greg Dalton.

On today's program, nuclear power, revive it or allow a slow death.

Today, about 100 nuclear plants provide 20% of America's electricity. Once touted as a modern power source, nuclear fell out of favor after

a series of major accidents, most notably Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. A handful of

the plants that once dotted the American landscape have been shuttered because they can't compete

with cheaper sources of power. The billions and billions of tons of carbon that we're releasing into the atmosphere now,

there's no practical way for future generations to ever rectify that problem.

And I think that shutting down nuclear plants instead of coal plants is just morally indefensible.

Pear Peterson is professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley,

and a co-founder of a nuclear technology company.

Later on, we'll hear from other companies working on innovations

that could put new nuclear power back on the table.

But as Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists cautions,

it's important that we make it as secure as possible.

Because if the world experienced another Fukushima-like accident, it could seriously damage or further

damage the credibility of the technology going forward.

Pierre Peterson and Edwin Lyman join me now to talk about the health of the nuclear power industry

today and its path forward.

We've not seen great changes in our technology since the first water-cold reactors were

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