6 HN users recommended this talk5 months2018–2021score 5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Frequently linked in nuclear-power threads as an eye-opening pro-nuclear argument from a former anti-nuclear activist.
In this TEDxBerlin talk, environmental activist Michael Shellenberger explains why he changed from opposing nuclear power to advocating it, after looking at the evidence on Chernobyl, Fukushima and air pollution.
“This is a self-professed anti-nuclear hippy giving a talk about how rationally looking at chernobyl and fukushima made him a nuclear power advocate.” (HN, 2019)
Nuclear power proponents don’t let emotion and fear get in the way of the facts. Nuclear power kills far far (far far far) less people than other forms of power generation. When it goes wrong it’s super scary looking, terrifying really, but when you dig into the statistics of these accidents they wind up being less scary than is usually made out. It helps to learn about how nuclear power plants work, and visit one if you ever get the chance, once you get your head around it it becomes a lot less scary. For example take a look at the fatalities table here: [link] PS: A good starting point to start questioning the anti-nuclear narrative is a documentary called Pandora’s Promise, which is on Prime for free. Or perhaps this TED talk: [this video]
Pro-nuclear talk questioning the anti-nuclear narrative
1. Look into thorium-based nuclear power. Also, I think each country should have its own nuclear waste facilities, not a single barrel of nuclear waste should leave the border. Nuclear power kills fewer people than solar per unit of electricity. 2. Tricky. Educate kids. But of course, I am not delusional about human nature. Checkout this talk [this video]
There has been a little bit of an update on views of chernobyl. Despite being considered the worst nuclear accident of all time, the actual death and damage toll from chernobyl is minimal compared to more boring things like coal dust and air pollution. This is a self-professed anti-nuclear hippy giving a talk about how rationally looking at chernobyl and fukushima made him a nuclear power advocate. [this video]
Anti-nuclear activist explains why he became a nuclear advocate
Go into this with an open mind, but it shows a number of ways that nuclear is superior to renewables, coming from someone who was staunchly against nuclear: [this video]
Former anti-nuclear speaker argues nuclear beats renewables
> Renewable energy sources have zero fuel costs. That's not true. It costs fuel to mine the resourses needed, to build the equipments, to install them, to maintain them. The IPCC states that globally, nuclear power emits _less_ greenhouse gases than hydro and solar, and emits about the same as wind. [1] [1] [link] Table A.III.2, page 1335 For more info, please see this eye opening TedX talk on the subject: [this video]
Give this a look [this video] The TLDR is: 7 million people die anually from air pollution. Fukushima and Chernobil combined don't even put a dent on that. And solar+wind alone is not enough.
Compares nuclear accident deaths with air pollution deaths
It's reasonable to assume that a adversary can and will use overreaction against perceived threads as a strategic 'unconventional weapon'. Unconventional defence would include educating a modern populace on critical thinking, thread model evaluation and even things like stoicism. [this video] is relevant, in which the fear of the thing killed 1500, while the thing in reality is benign.
Shows how fear of nuclear caused more harm than the accident
The use of nuclear power should be encouraged and popularised whenever we can. Years of nuclear FUD needs to be unwound and humanity re-educated on the benefits of nuclear power. So much of our current climate change predicament could have been avoided. Its a crying shame. [this video]
Pro-nuclear talk by a former anti-nuclear activist
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
9 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.
Read more
Citations, criticism and jokes