Fairewinds Energy Education with Arnie and Maggie Gundersen Part 1

Fairewinds Energy Education declares: “Our mission is to educate the public about nuclear power and other energy issues.” Arnie Gundersen is its chief engineer and Maggie Gundersen its founder and president. Both spent many years in the nuclear industry—Arnie as a nuclear engineer and reactor operator and a senior vice president and Maggie as a public relations person—before leaving it. In this Enviro Close-Up they relate how—as Arnie says—the nuclear industry is “now hiding behind climate change” when, in fact, the nuclear fuel cycle is carbon intensive and nuclear power plants themselves emit Carbon 14, a radioactive form of carbon. Moreover, nuclear power “doesn’t make any economic sense,” says Arnie. Maggie details how the nuclear industry uses “nukespeak” to hide its dangers. “I was trained on how to use nukespeak,” she says. Arnie refutes the claim of the nuclear industry that “nuclear plants can’t explode” and discusses how, indeed, at Fukushima nuclear plants did explode—and Fairewinds exposed how. The linkage between commercial nuclear power and atomic weaponry is discussed. “I didn’t understand the linkage when I started in the industry,” says Arnie. He tells of how the “small modular reactors” now being promoted by the nuclear industry produce “even more…radioactive rubble” than larger ones. And they speak about how nuclear power isn’t needed, that safe, clean, green energy can provide all the power the world needs. Nuclear power, says Maggie, “shouldn’t be on the planet.”

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