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Lou Zeller, anti-nuclear activist’s vision of hope

“I’ve been doing this for over 24 years,” Zeller said. “Whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican administration, they all love nuclear power.” In either case, he added, “We’ve been able to turn back the drive to support it.”

Anti-nuclear in the age of Obama , Los Angeles Times, By Richard Fausset April 7, 2010 Longtime activist Lou Zeller struggles to generate opposition to the president’s vision in a much different era, when jobs and climate change are bigger concerns than Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. “….

.The 23-year-old plant provides 10% of Georgia’s electricity. Its owners — headed by the Southern Co., the regional utility giant — hope to double its capacity by adding two more reactors. If approved, the Vogtle expansion would be the first new U.S. nuclear power plant in more than three decades, and the first of a chain of new reactors backed by a $54.5-billion package of loan guarantees proposed in President Obama’s 2011 budget…..”I’ve been doing this for over 24 years,” Zeller said. “Whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican administration, they all love nuclear power.” In either case, he added, “We’ve been able to turn back the drive to support it.”

Despite its long turn out of the limelight, the anti-nuclear movement remains marked by a certain confidence, one built on a belief that Americans remain mistrustful of nuclear energy after 1979’s partial meltdown at Three Mile Island and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

“There are enough people around the country who will say, ‘We fought this war already and won. Are you guys nuts?’ ” said S. David Freeman, a longtime anti-nuclear voice and interim general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power…..
“When I first became aware of the problem, I felt like those folks in Shell Bluff did — that they’re standing by themselves,” Zeller said. “How could they fight the federal agencies that have all that money and all that power? It just felt like we were Lilliputians in the land of the giants.”….You hold a meeting. You listen. Then you work up a plan for a bigger meeting. At some point, you hope the meetings are big enough that important people listen.

Anti-nuclear in the age of Obama – latimes.com

April 8, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin