Junichiro Koizumi Quotes

I was not a hard-liner against nuclear, because I viewed that as perhaps the only way we might keep the lights on another 25 years. But lately I am on board with Nicole Foss's argument that we will not have the capital or even the social cohesion to build anymore nuke plants.

Nearly one third of Japan would have had to evacuate from their communities…. I came to believe that we should halt further operations of nuclear energy that entail such huge risks…. Japan can supply its energy needs without nuclear power

Japanese people cut their energy use by 25 percent immediately after Fukushima. They showed there was huge opportunity there. And instead, the government simply wants to get those plants up and running again.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is continually reviewing its safety plan for the 100-plus operating civilian nuclear reactors in the United States. And when those plants were put into operation, they were required to have double and triple redundant safety systems.

If nuclear power plants are safe, let the commerical insurance industry insure them. Until these most expert judges of risk are willing to gamble with their money, I'm not willing to gamble with the health and safety of my family.

I think we should stop using nuclear power plants because it's an old system that we can't control.

The safest nuclear power or energy policy is to realize 'zero nuclear power.'

France generates a significant part of its energy requirements from fission reactors and these have achieved a perfect safety record. We build ours all differently.

More than 30 of America's 100 nuclear power reactors have the same brand of General Electric reactors or containment system used in Fukushima.

While many technological measures can be taken to secure safety at nuclear power plants, such measures on their own cannot cover great risks.

The idea that the growing demand for energy worldwide can be met with energy from nuclear power is nonsense.

What are the odds that a nuclear emergency like the one at Fukushima Dai-ichi could happen in the central or eastern United States? They'd have to be astronomical, right?

Today, nuclear power provides 20 percent of power in the United States.

For 50 years, nuclear power stations have produced three products which only a lunatic could want: bomb-explosive plutonium, lethal radioactive waste and electricity so dear it has to be heavily subsidised. They leave to future generations the task, and most of the cost, of making safe sites that have been polluted half-way to eternity.

Hopefully, nations will refuse to accept a situation in which nuclear accidents actually do occur, and, if at all possible, they will do something to correct a system which makes them likely.

When the world has 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 nuclear plants, can we call that a safe world? I think we need to properly have this debate.

Everybody after Fukushima had to reassess the safety of nuclear. When I set out to design a reactor, I knew it had to be passive and intrinsically safe.

If you set aside Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the safety record of nuclear is really very good.

With its present organization, staff and attitudes, the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] is unable to fulfill its responsibility for providing an acceptable level of safety for nuclear power plants.

I do not believe that nuclear power is worth it, if it creates radiation.

No nuclear weapon has detonated. Some nuclear weapons have exploded and spread radioactive plutonium…. The nuclear weapons of today are much safer than those of the 1980s. I worry about the way they are managed however.

… literature is the only consciousness we possess and that its role as consciousness must inform us of our ability to comprehend the hideous danger of nuclear power.

I have no hope that a nuclear disaster can be avoided.

We must create a new culture to improve [nuclear] safety. After making sure that it is safe, we must restart nuclear energy.

The nuclear industry has this amazing record, even equipment from generations one and two. But nuclear mishaps tend to come in these big events - Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and now Fukushima - so it's more visible.