The Power of Nuclear: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Our Mightiest Energy Source

“Opponents of nuclear power have turned out to be the useful idiots” of the fossil fuel industry, according to this glib debut polemic. Journalist Visscher argues that nuclear energy is the planet’s best bet for maintaining current living standards while reducing carbon emissions. Unfortunately, his efforts to counter critics of nuclear power fail to take its downsides seriously. “Perhaps we need more nuclear accidents” to dispel the notion they’re earth-shattering events, he contends in a particularly appalling chapter, suggesting that the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl wasn’t that bad because radiation from the incident is only expected to cause around 4,000 additional cancer deaths by 2065 (“That’s it”). His evaluation of the safety of underground repositories for storing nuclear waste, which can take hundreds of thousands of years to decay, is hardly reassuring, dismissing concerns about repository failure by citing a study conducted by a repository-building company that found that in the case of containment failure, leaked radiation would amount to miniscule levels after 10,000 years. (What the damage would be before 10,000 years goes unaddressed.) Specious comparisons occur throughout, with Visscher repeatedly asserting that because other energy sources also have disadvantages, countries might as well get behind nuclear power. One-sided and unpersuasive, this implodes under scrutiny. (Jan.)