CNN Opinion: Nuclear power's time has come (By Stewart Brand)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/22/brand.nuclear.power.pro/index.html

Nuclear power's time has come

(CNN) -- For decades, pioneering environmentalist Stewart Brand, the founder and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, opposed the use of nuclear power. Now he sees it as vital to efforts to combat climate change.

Earlier this month, Brand made the case for nuclear power in a debate with Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. (TED is a nonprofit that took its name from the subjects of technology, information and design and is dedicated to "Ideas worth spreading." It publishes talks on all subjects at http://www.ted.com/)

His outspoken support for nuclear power comes as the White House has been pushing for the first new nuclear plants in the United States in three decades. Last week, President Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for adding two nuclear reactors at an existing plant in Burke County, Georgia, near Augusta.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/22/jacobson.nuclear.power.con/index.html">Mark Jacobson says nuclear power is too risky

Brand says his turnabout began in 2002, when the Global Business Network, a consulting organization he co-founded, did a project on climate change for the U.S. Secretary of Defense. In an interview with CNN.com, Brand said the project showed him that the globe's climate can change abruptly: "It goes over some tipping point and suddenly you're in a situation that you don't like and you can't go back. That got me way more concerned about climate as a clear and present danger than I had been."

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