Nuclear Nonsense

Amory B. Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), critiques a chapter on nuclear power from Stewart Brand's book, 'Whole Earth Discipline: an Ecopragmatist Manifesto'. Lovins argues that Brand's support for nuclear energy is based on flawed logic and ignores empirical data regarding economics, carbon efficiency, and the viability of decentralized renewable alternatives.

• Nuclear power is presented as an ineffective tool for climate protection because it is significantly more expensive and slower to deploy than efficiency and micropower. Specifically, it is estimated to save between two and 20 times less carbon per dollar and is 20 to 40 times slower to implement.
• The primary failure of nuclear power is economic, characterized by soaring capital costs and financial risk. In the U.S., nuclear capacity fell short of forecasts by about 12-fold, and worldwide by 30-fold, largely due to construction costs exceeding expectations. A 2003 MIT study indicated that new U.S. nuclear plants could not compete with new coal- or gas-fired plants, and construction costs tripled in the five years following that study.
• Decentralized renewable energy sources are more competitive and attractive to investors than nuclear power. In 2008, distributed renewables added 40 billion watts and received $100 billion in private investment, while nuclear added zero and received no private equity investment for 33 proposed U.S. projects between August 2005 and August 2008, despite significant subsidies.
• The argument that nuclear power is necessary for 'baseload' power is rejected. The author asserts that no single plant can run all the time and that grid stability is a statistical attribute of all plants combined, managed through diversification and forecasting. This is evidenced by areas that are already 30–40% windpowered.
• Claims regarding the superior land-use efficiency of nuclear power are disputed. The author argues that nuclear land-use is understated by about 43-fold because exclusion zones and the fuel chain are omitted. When properly measured, the land made unavailable for other uses for ground-mounted photovoltaics is about the same as or less than for nuclear power.

APA

Lovins, A. B. (2009). Nuclear Nonsense. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2009-10_NuclearNonsense.pdf

Chicago

Lovins, Amory B. Nuclear Nonsense. RMI, 2009. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2009-10_NuclearNonsense.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Lovins |first1=Amory B. |title=Nuclear Nonsense |publisher=RMI |date=13 October 2009 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2009-10_NuclearNonsense.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{lovins2009nuclear, author = {Lovins, Amory B.}, title = {{Nuclear Nonsense}}, publisher = {RMI}, year = {2009}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2009-10_NuclearNonsense.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }