NYTimes: Town looks forward to its nuclear future.

[NNadir]

GAFFNEY, S.C. — Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times
Bill Whelchel, a barber, supports current plans to build a nuclear facility.
"I'm not worried at all about putting in a new nuclear power plant," said Mr. Whelchel, 76. "We're used to nuclear power around here. Plus, it'll create jobs, and one thing I've learned is that working people are happy people..."

..."I can't remember hearing a single negative comment from any local resident," Cody Sossamon, publisher of The Gaffney Ledger, said as he sat in his office out near the highway.

Driven partly by federal Department of Energy projections that demand for electrical power will increase 50 percent by 2025, and by recent federal legislation offering a more streamlined application process and financial incentives for new nuclear facilities, many utilities are eager to get back into the atomic business.

"We initially were looking at 14 communities in the Southeast, and then we narrowed that down to four," said Henry B. Barron Jr., chief nuclear officer for Duke Power, which announced last month that it would apply to build its first new nuclear plant in three decades just outside Gaffney. "I found no single individual who had any concerns about the plant. The few who did have concerns were worried about increased traffic on the roads during construction."

In a March report, Fitch Ratings, a global financial research company, said: "It is no longer a matter of debate whether there will be new nuclear plants in the industry's future. Now, the discussion has shifted to predictions of how many, where and when."

How many remains to be seen. Nine utilities have said they will apply to build as many as 19 new nuclear units, but that does not mean all of them will be built.

Bold is mine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/us/10nuke.html

[Dead_Parrot]

1. The BBC asked locals about the Dungeness plant in the UK:

The statements speak for themselves, really.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4633024.stm

Maybe people aren't as dumb as I like to think.

[NNadir]

2. Well there was one person who didn't like the plant.

He was very concerned about "waste."

I guess he never heard of carbon dioxide.

I would be very happy to have a nuclear plant in my town. I'm not sure how enlightened my neighbors are, but I would see it, as does one of the people interviewed in your article, as "beautiful."

[Dead_Parrot]

3. If you mean Roger Higman...

... he's politics major living in London, and one of FOE's talking heads. But to be fair to him, he doesn't drive, so he does better than the average Amory in keeping a low impact.

Personally I'd be happy next to a nuke, although given I'm in NZ I'd also be very surprised. :D

[NNadir]

4. Well he does do doublespeak.

Doesn't seem like much of a friend of the earth.

But I know nothing about him.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. FOE are a step up from greenpeace...

I've been a member of both, and FOE actually do practical things - for instance, they negotiated a bulk price for solar water heating installs with a UK vendor: FOE members got about 10% off. Much more useful than a fucking mug.

They still suffer from lack-of-joined-up-thinking, though. The same guy is also, apparently, their Global Warming spokesman:

Just because you're British doesn't mean you understand irony.