White House Cautiously Embraces Nuclear Power to Meet Green Goals

MINERAL, VIRGINIA - U.S. President Joe Biden's administration is cautiously embracing nuclear energy, despite lingering safety concerns, to help achieve its goal of a net-zero carbon economy for America by the year 2050.

The 94 nuclear power reactors across the United States — the most of any country — will be "absolutely essential" for the country to meet Biden's climate projections, according to his climate adviser, Gina McCarthy. "Now, I don't expect those old ones [nuclear reactors] to be around a long time. But I do expect them to be safe, and I expect them to continue in a way that's going to allow us to keep the greenhouse gas emissions down with really stable baseload capacity," McCarthy recently told a webinar hosted by the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy. "We are not going to be able to achieve our climate goals if nuclear power plants shut down. We have to find ways to keep them operating," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said early last month before a House Appropriations subcommittee.