When Heather Hoff took a job at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, she was skeptical about nuclear energy. Therefore, I decided to report anything suspicious to the anti-nuclear organization Mothers for Peace.
Instead, after working at the plant for more than a decade and asking every question she could think of about operations and safety, in 2016 she formed her own group, Mothers for Nuclear, to keep the plant afloat. co-founded.
“I was pretty nervous,” Hoff, 45, said. “I felt so alone. No one was doing that.” We looked for allies, other pro-nuclear groups. …There weren’t that many. ”
But now, public support for nuclear power is at its highest in more than a decade, as governments and private industry struggle to reduce dependence on global warming fossil fuels.
Proactive and impactful reporting on climate change, environment, health and science.
A series of nuclear disasters decades ago left most older Americans distrustful of technology, but this was not the case for younger generations.
The old-school environmental activist “grew up in the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl generation. …Today’s Gen Z was not like that,” says the former environmentalist, who has been involved in the movement to close Diablo Canyon since the 1990s and is the legislative director of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility. said David Wiseman, 63, who works for the company.
“They don’t remember how paralyzed with fear the nation was the week after Three Mile Island. … They don’t remember the impact of Chernobyl less than seven years later.”
Public support for nuclear power is at its highest in more than a decade. Here, the domed nuclear reactor of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant looms along the California coast.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Many of these young nuclear proponents, who are publicly vocal on social media sites like We hope it will help meet climate change goals.
“I think we are a generation that is ready to make this change, that is ready to accept facts over emotions, and ready to move to cleaner, more reliable and safer energy sources,” said Texas A&M. said Veronica Anara, 23, a university student and company president. Member of the school’s new nuclear advocacy resource organization.
In the past few months alone, Microsoft announced plans to fund the reopening of a shuttered unit on Three Mile Island to provide power to its data center. Amazon and Google are also investing in new, cutting-edge nuclear technology to meet their clean energy goals.
Although some advocates hope the revitalization of nuclear power plants is not driven by energy-intensive AI technology, they say the excitement around nuclear power is more evident than in a generation.
“There’s a lot of things happening at the same time. …This is the real nuclear renaissance,” said Gabriel Ivory, 22, a Texas A&M student and NARO vice president. “When you look at Three Mile Island being reactivated, it’s something that no one would have thought of.”
This enthusiasm was also accompanied by surprising political changes.
During the Cold War nuclear energy frenzy of the 1970s and 1980s, nuclear proponents (many of them Republicans) touted the jobs nuclear power generated and the United States became the overwhelming leader in nuclear technology and weapons on the world stage. He argued that it was necessary to continue.
Meanwhile, environmental groups, often aligned with Democrats, have argued against nuclear power because of its potential negative effects on surrounding ecosystems, the thorny issue of storing spent fuel, and the small but real risk of nuclear meltdown. opposed to power generation.
“In America… it’s very politicized,” said Jennifer Avellaneda Diaz, 29, who works in the industry and runs the advocacy account Nuclear Hazelnut. “This is a little embarrassing because we have a lot of great experts here: doctors, scientists, engineers, mathematicians, physicists.”
Younger Republicans are now 11 percentage points less likely than older Republicans to support new U.S. nuclear power plants. On the left, the opposite is true: Younger Democrats are 9 percentage points more likely to support new nuclear power than older Democrats, according to a Pew Research Center poll.
As a result, Republicans ages 65 and older are 27% more likely to support nuclear power than Democrats, while Republicans ages 18 to 29 are 7% more likely to support nuclear power than Democrats. % is only high.
“Young Democrats and young Republicans may be looking at numbers, but they’re two different sets of numbers,” Wiseman said. “Young Republicans may be focused on the cost per megawatt hour, but young Democrats may be focused on a different number: parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
Brendan Pittman, 33, who founded the Berkeley Amendment Movement to remove Berkeley’s “nuclear-free zone” status, said he’s noticed that young people are more open to learning about nuclear energy. Ta.
“Right now we are facing an energy crisis, and there is a growing debate about ‘how do we solve this?’ Young people are taking a more rational and nuanced view of all energy, and they are The conclusion has been reached: “Yes, nuclear checks all the boxes,” Pittman said.
“I remember collecting signatures on the streets of Berkeley, and most young people, when I say I’m going to support nuclear energy, they just stop me and say, ‘Oh, you support nuclear energy. Where should I sign? ‘ he said. “I didn’t even have to sell it.”
This newfound enthusiasm is also impacting the nuclear industry, where two major age groups are emerging. Industry advocates say these are primarily baby boomers who entered nuclear jobs in search of consistent work, and millennials and Gen Z who made the ambitious choice to enter a stigmatized field. say. .
“There are all kinds of different backgrounds, and that blossoms into all kinds of fresh new ideas, and I think that’s part of what makes the industry so exciting right now,” said the former Young Members Group president. Chairman Matt Wagon, 33, said. of the American Nuclear Association.
Like the workers themselves, the industry has formed two bubbles. It ranges from traditional plants that have been in operation for decades and small nuclear reactors that can power or heat a single plant to a potentially safe class of plants with safety features such as A host of new technologies, ranging from large-scale nuclear reactors. Uses molten salt in the core instead of pressurized water.
In existing factories, young people have injected innovation into long-standing operating standards, improving safety and efficiency. At startups, people who have worked in the industry for decades can provide “valuable” knowledge not found in textbooks, industry insiders say.
Steam rises from a cooling tower at the Alvin W. Bortle Power Plant in Waynesboro, Georgia.
(Mike Stewart/Associated Press)
The infusion of new talent and ideas is a significant change from when the Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania in 1979 and the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986 devastated the industry. Regulations became stricter, and the development of new nuclear reactors and new technologies stalled.
False theories about technology have spread throughout society. Hoff and Avellaneda Diaz recalled their parents worrying that the radiation would affect their ability to have children. (The average Diablo worker receives significantly less radiation per week than the passengers on a single East Coast to West Coast flight.)
“Radiation is invisible. You can’t see it. You can’t smell it. You can’t hear it,” Wagon said. “And people tend to be afraid of the unknown. …So if you say to them, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of radiation coming out of this power plant,’ brush it off. It’s difficult. [the misinformation and fear]”
Only as memories faded and new generations entered the workforce did nuclear power’s reputation slowly recover.
Advocates also say that Nuclear is Clean Energy (NiCE) clubs have been established at several schools in California in recent years, making college campuses a major venue for nuclear advocacy.
In August, Ivory put up a big “I do.” [heart] Nuclear Energy” sign hangs behind ESPN’s college football broadcasts. This spread quickly on social media and even caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Nuclear advocates say the internet and easy access to accurate information also contribute to their efforts.
“This was definitely a revolution, because now it’s so easy to search on Google,” Avellaneda Díaz said. “Back then you had to go to the library and get books. It wasn’t that easy to get information and get information.”
According to a poll conducted by scientist and nuclear opinion expert Anne Visconti, 74% of people who said they felt they had enough information strongly supported the use of nuclear power in the United States. In contrast, only 6% of those who felt they had no information supported it.
Public action and education are therefore central to the new nuclear advocacy movement.
“Let me tell you the truth,” said Annala. “Our generation has the whole internet at their fingertips, so just starting a conversation is really important.”
Advocates say that, unlike Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, they were able to quickly disseminate information about nuclear power to counter misconceptions and prevent nuclear energy from becoming politically and culturally toxic after the Fukushima accident. I suspect that it was.
The students at Texas A&M were very young when the disaster occurred, but in 2011 when Japan’s earthquake and tsunami crippled the power system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing a meltdown. , Mr. Wagon and Mr. Pittman were both college students. Avellaneda Diaz was a high school student.
Hoff was working at Diablo Canyon when the Fukushima accident occurred. Due to the media’s agitation and public fear, she almost quit her job.
Instead, after taking time to analyze the causes of the meltdown and the mistakes she made, she decided to embrace nuclear power.
For her, Fukushima is a reminder that nuclear power comes with risks, however small, but even in the worst-case scenario, operators are skilled at preventing disaster. It was given to me. (PG&E says it’s impossible for Fukushima flooding to occur in Diablo Canyon.)
Environmental activists in Seoul march at a rally commemorating the 12th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
(Ahn Young-joon/AP)
Hoff is currently writing Emergency Procedures for Diablo Canyon and hopes to relearn how the industry interacts with the public.
She said the same thing happened when she first – somewhat reluctantly – took a job at Diablo.
“For the first few years, I was a little uncomfortable,” Hoff said of constantly questioning and looking for major flaws.
Instead of pushing her back, the plants welcomed it.
Newsletter
Towards a more sustainable California
Get Boiling Point, a newsletter that explores climate change, energy and the environment, and join the conversation and solutions.
Please enter your email address
Please sign up
You may receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
