Thread by @Gen_Atomic

Tonight on the @CNN #climateforum, Democratic candidates will talk through their plans to rapidly transition our country to clean energy. We’re guessing we’ll hear a lot about #renewables & carbon pricing. But what will they say about #nuclear energy?

#DemDebates

Will they mention that it’s the largest source of carbon free electricity in the US?

#climateforum @wolfblitzer @ErinBurnett @andersoncooper @ChrisCuomo @DonLemon
thx:@GovNuclear

Will anyone point out that, considering the scale of the challenge, we should get rid of fossil fuels before even thinking about getting rid of nuclear?

@wolfblitzer @ErinBurnett @andersoncooper @ChrisCuomo @DonLemon #climateforum

Will they remind people that #nuclear power has been the fastest way to decarbonize we’ve ever seen, and perhaps, considering the urgency of #climatechange we should be using more of it?

@wolfblitzer @ErinBurnett @andersoncooper @ChrisCuomo @DonLemon #climateforum

Will they say anything about how #nuclear requires the least amount of mining of any low-carbon power source, which means it has the smallest impact on natural habitats and freshwater?

@andersoncooper #climateforum
Thx: @BNW_Ben @BNW_Aus

Will @ElizabethWarren cite the MIT report that shows decarbonizing with a mix of nuclear and renewables is 10 to 62% cheaper than renewables alone? news.mit.edu/2018/adding-po… #climateforum

Will @BernieSanders be able to justify the higher cost and bigger climate risk of phasing out #nuclear, and make the case why we should phase out the 20,000 union jobs that come from it?
dailyenergyinsider.com/news/7614-one-… @andersoncooper #climateforum

Also-- does @BernieSanders still think it was the right move to close Vermont Yankee early, despite it causing emissions to jump in VT by 16% the next year (the highest increase in the country?) forbes.com/sites/michaels… @andersoncooper

The #climateforum is in #NYC, which gets a full 90% of its low-carbon power from Indian Point nuclear plant. Indian Point is being forced to close by @andrewcuomo

Will anyone say anything about it?
cc: @chriscuomo
environmentalprogress.org/new-york

Will @CoryBooker give nuclear a little kudos for making the electricity in his state of New Jersey about one half carbon free since the 70s, or how the recent closure of one of the NJ’s plants was replaced mostly by fossil fuels? @DonLemon #climateforum

Will @AndrewYang talk about how #thorium is both a promising fuel,and a byproduct of mining for rare earths, which we need for wind, EVs and more, and of which China has a global monopoly that stifles US advanced manufacturing? #climateforum #YangGang

Will @ErinBurnett ask @KamalaHarris about not pressing charges when @californiapuc and Southern California Edison bilked ratepayers out of $3.3 billion and closed 21% of California's carbon free electricity prematurely? @SCE_SONGS kpbs.org/news/2016/apr/…

Will @JoeBiden talk about the tragedy of the early closure of Three Mile Island at the end of this month, simply because fracking makes gas cheap and it’s free to pollute? PA will lose over 700 jobs and 800MW of clean power. @andersoncooper #climateforum

Will anyone talk about the limitations of energy storage, and how we-really-oughta-have-low-carbon-baseload (as France, Sweden, & Ontario do.) Equivalent of 1 barrel of oil in Tesla batteries would cost $250,000 and weigh over 20,000 pounds. manhattan-institute.org/green-energy-r… @ManhattanInst

Will anyone have the courage to say that we haven’t really seen data that high penetrations of intermittent clean energy like wind and solar significantly cut carbon? Nuclear and hydro on the other hand, plenty of evidence #climateforum thx @GrantChalmers

Will anyone mention that #nuclear energy is the best way to get rid of nuclear weapons? In fact, got rid of 20,000 bombs worth of Uranium from 1993-2013, making ~30% of the US’s carbon free electricity in the process en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatons_…
#climateforum

Will any of the candidates speak to the low cost of #nuclear power around the world, and discuss how we can address that in the US so that we’ll have our best shot at cutting carbon? #climateforum

Thx: @Thoughtscapism

Will anyone point out that fossil fuel companies have been sowing fear and doubt about nuclear energy for the last 40 years because they see it as the biggest threat to their existence? #climateforum

And finally-- will anyone talk about the immense potential of advanced reactors to not only help decarbonize electricity, but also make carbon neutral synthetic fuels to decarbonize flight & desalinate water to protect us from drought? #climateforum

And yeah, we've heard of #Fukushima, #Chernobyl Chernobyl, etc... Even with those accidents, nuclear power is still the safest form of electricity production.

Thanks @envprogress

And the waste? All of it would fit in a single Walmart, and is recyclable in the next generation of reactors. Or we could cheaply store it underground using horizontal drilling techniques like the forward thinking women at deepisolation.com are proposing. Lots of options.

We can do this, but we need to check the ideology at the door, keep an open mind, and be pragmatic about our climate #solutions. Let's #UniteBehindTheScience and solve this thing! Thanks again to @CNN for hosting this important discussion! Looking forward to #ClimateForum2020

@wolfblitzer @ErinBurnett @andersoncooper @ChrisCuomo @donlemon @GovNuclear Only @CoryBooker did. In the final 20 minutes of the 7 hour forum.

@wolfblitzer @ErinBurnett @andersoncooper @ChrisCuomo @donlemon @CoryBooker sort of alluded to this

@wolfblitzer @ErinBurnett @andersoncooper @ChrisCuomo @donlemon Nobody mentioned this at the #ClimateTownHall

@andersoncooper @BNW_Ben @BNW_Aus Nothing about the mining requirements of #100RE vs. #nuclear at the #ClimateTownHall

@elizabethwarren .@ewarren definitely did not talk about how decarbonization is cheaper with nuclear. We hope she reads this report and re-considers. We know she loves science!

#ClimateTownHall

@BernieSanders @andersoncooper Bernie just took a big swig of nuclear hate-orade. No bueno if we actually want to limit warming to 1.5C. I'm sure the unions were paying attention as well.

@BernieSanders @andersoncooper This would have been a great question for @ac360 and company to ask... it didn't happen.

@andrewcuomo @ChrisCuomo Not a once was Indian Point mentioned. It's a damn shame considering how many emissions that plant is prevented over its lifetime. #ClimateTownHall

@CoryBooker @donlemon @CoryBooker was the hands down winner-- he had the knowledge and the courage to stand up for nuclear power.

@AndrewYang .@AndrewYang didn't mention this aspect, but he did say that we needed nuclear at least *for now*. Expect him to evolve when he realizes what a killer app nuclear could be. #ClimateTownHall

@GrantChalmers Nobody brought this up-- and it's too bad. 99.9% of democrats seem to have the false perception that this has been shown to work somewhere. Nope. Germany tried it. You need baseload low-carbon.

@Thoughtscapism None of them did. Too bad.

Dem candidates seem to think nuclear waste is an intractable problem. If you believe in science-- ASK. THE. SCIENTISTS. #ClimateTownHall