Reply to William Tucker's critique of Amory Lovins's article "Nuclear Socialism"

Amory Lovins defends his position that nuclear power lacks a viable business case, noting that new U.S. reactors cannot attract private capital despite significant subsidies. He contrasts this with the growth of renewables, which attracted $131 billion in global private investment in the previous year.

• Amory Lovins asserts that new nuclear reactors in the United States are unable to attract private investment regardless of subsidies because they lack a viable business case, leading to increased financial risk and moral hazard.
• Renewable energy sources, excluding large hydroelectric dams, significantly outperformed nuclear power in the global market in the previous year, securing $131 billion in private investment and adding 52 billion watts of capacity, while nuclear power received zero private investment and lost capacity.
• Lovins disputes William Tucker's claims regarding the causes of nuclear project failures, specifically arguing that the collapse of the Constellation project was driven by poor economics rather than regulatory issues, despite a $7.5-billion taxpayer loan guarantee.

APA

Lovins, A. (n.d.). Reply to William Tucker's critique of Amory Lovins's article "Nuclear Socialism". RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2010-25_ReplyToWilliamTucker.pdf

Chicago

Lovins, Amory. Reply to William Tucker's critique of Amory Lovins's article "Nuclear Socialism". RMI, n.d. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2010-25_ReplyToWilliamTucker.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Lovins |first1=Amory |title=Reply to William Tucker's critique of Amory Lovins's article "Nuclear Socialism" |publisher=RMI |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2010-25_ReplyToWilliamTucker.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{lovinsndreply, author = {Lovins, Amory}, title = {{Reply to William Tucker's critique of Amory Lovins's article "Nuclear Socialism"}}, publisher = {RMI}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2010-25_ReplyToWilliamTucker.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }