NEI’s Matt Crozat joined the Cato Institute’s Libertarianism.org podcast—Building Tomorrow—to discuss the HBO miniseries Chernobyl and whether such an incident could ever happen again. After pointing out that the type of reactor at Chernobyl was never (and would never be) built outside the former Soviet Union, Matt touched on the many other technological and institutional reasons such an incident could not occur at a nuclear plant operating in the West.
During the discussion, Matt noted that showrunner Craig Mazin has said repeatedly that the miniseries is really a story about the failures of the Soviet Union and that he supports nuclear energy as a source of emissions-free power. Asked by host Paul Matzko why nuclear energy has not had a higher profile in recent discussions of the Green New Deal and other initiatives to address climate change, Matt replied:
I think it mostly has to do with people not realizing that nuclear provides most of our non-emitting electricity in this country ... That lack of appreciation of the role nuclear has had in reducing emissions has been a policy challenge. And we’ve really begun to see people come around on it, but only recently. And I think it’s because we’re now starting to see nuclear plants in the U.S. facing the possibility of closure.
