Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tristor 1695 days ago
> Why are they moving away from nuclear?

Because in the US, Twitter determines policy priorities, not science or reason.

3 comments

The US has been nuclear hesitant since before Twitter was around. Perhaps it's gotten worse, although I think that would be difficult to prove causality.
I think it’s more because, does it make sense to have a nuclear power plant so close to nyc. Even in a moderate fallout incident the city would have to be evacuated.
>Even in a moderate fallout incident the city would have to be evacuated.

This is exactly the problem when it comes to Indian Point. The only way out of New York is over a few bridges and tunnels. It isn't possible to evacuate even a fraction of the millions of people through a few bridges and tunnels if a radioactive plume is released only 36 miles away. There are arguments to be made for nuclear power, but that we should have one 36 miles from the most populous, densely packed city in the country, which also happens to be an island, is not one of them.

My understanding of the situation is that it's a generational thing. Millenials and younger see nuclear power as much more appealing than folks over 40. So, not twitter.
It was the opposite in 2012[0] but I haven't found more recent data. (Although their dividing line was 50, not 40).

0: https://news.gallup.com/poll/153452/americans-favor-nuclear-...