Steven Kotler: Meltdown or Mother Lode: The New Truth About Nuclear Power

Lately we’ve been seeing a lot more discussion about nuclear power on “environmentalist” and other left-leaning sites that have traditionally been opposed to nuclear. I know that part of this has been driven by the interest in building new reactors and reducing CO2 emissions, as well as by the President’s announcement of new loan guarantees to help build nuclear power plants.

But there is a fascinating sub-thread in many of these articles, especially in the comments sections: some folks who have been “anti-nuclear” are now publicly stating that they are “pro-thorium”.

The WIRED magazine article probably had a lot to do with it, as did Dr. Jim Hansen’s endorsement of LFTR and thorium in a letter to the President. But the idea seems to be spreading far and wide, and this article is yet another example of the trend. Steven Kotler interviewed me for this article last year, but it wasn’t until a few days ago that I found out that the article had been released. Steven does a good job helping people understand that “nuclear power” is a much bigger idea than they might have previously assumed, and isn’t just light-water reactors burning uranium.

There’s a lot of nuclear reactor designs out there, and more and more people are answering the question “are you in favor of nuclear power?” with the response:

“which kind of nuclear power?”