Keep up the great work. I love the quote about you lambast[ing] Australia’s energy policies! Maybe next you can do such speaking tours to Germany, U.K., California, etc.?
Agreed. I realize it likely will never happen, but the energy policy of this country and the execution of that policy is too important to be left to people whose #1 priority is re-election. A completely independent council or commission of no more than 13 or so members would be a good start.
The shutdown of the Indian Point nuclear plant, and many others in the US and around the world, is largely due to an irrational fear of nuclear energy promulgated mainly by politician and media without any real knowledge of the subject. The three most prominent nuclear accidents, Three Mile Island (TMI), Fukushima and Chernobyl demonstrate this.
Three Mile Island: In 1979 a meltdown occurred in one of the reactors in the Pennsylvania TMI plant. Very little radiation was released; the average dose from the incident was less than one per cent of the natural background radiation. To quote the US Senate report on the accident: “The Special Investigation reviewed some available data and the findings of other investigations regarding radiation releases. It found no persuasive evidence that releases during the accident resulted in adverse near-term physical health effects or will result in statistically significant long-term physical health effects"
Concern over the incident may have been exacerbated by the coincidental release of the movie China Syndrome a short time before the accident. Since this movie gave a fictional and very sensational account of the effects of a similar accident, when TMI actually occurred it met a public primed to believe that disaster was imminent.
Fukushima: In March 2011 the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was hit by two major natural disasters in quick succession, first a massive earthquake, then a huge tsunami. When the earthquake occurred all the reactors shut down, as they were designed to do, and auxiliary diesel generators started up to circulate cooling water since the ongoing radioactivity in the reactors still generated a lot of heat. However, the generators were situated below ground level and the tsunami following the earthquake flooded them out with seawater. There were some backup generators above the flood level, but the switchgear to bring them into operation was at ground level and was also shorted out by the tsunami. The company owning the power plant had a fleet of truck-mounted diesel generators at a central location for just such an emergency, but the chaos caused by the earthquake prevented them from getting to Fukushima in time. As a result, over the next several days three of the six reactors at the site overheated and went into meltdown.
While there were over 18,000 fatalities directly attributable to the earthquake and tsunami, there were no fatalities linked to short term over exposure to radiation at Fukushima, nor are any long-term health effects expected in the general public. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) published a report in 2013 on radiation effects from the accident which stated:
• “No radiation-related deaths or acute diseases have been observed among the workers and general public exposed to radiation from the accident.”
• “The doses to the general public, both those incurred during the first year and estimated for their lifetimes, are generally low or very low. No discernible increased incidence of radiation-related health effects are expected among exposed members of the public or their descendants.”
Chernobyl: The 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine was the largest non-military radiological event ever to have occurred. The Soviet reactors in use at the time were designed without much thought for safety. The catastrophe occurred because some tests being conducted on a reactor at the Chernobyl plant went out of control; descriptions of the way operators and management made ad hoc changes and overrode automatic safety features during the tests are hair-raising. According to a 1992 report by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (a part of the International Atomic Energy Agency), “The accident can be said to have flowed from a deficient safety culture, not only at the Chernobyl plant, but throughout the Soviet design, operating and regulatory organizations for nuclear power that existed at that time”.
Chernobyl Cancers and Deaths
A 2008 UNSCEAR report confirmed that there were 28 deaths of first responders from massive radiation exposure in the days and weeks following the accident. A further 19 deaths occurred during the period 1987-2004 in those who had received high doses, although not all of the latter were attributable to radiation exposure. The real death toll, however, is predicted to occur from cancers induced by long-term radiation exposure, although we should be cautious about this. Various environmental NGOs have produced what are generally recognized to be grossly inflated figures. A more realistic figure is contained in a 2006 paper published in the International Journal of Cancer. To quote this paper: “It is unlikely that the cancer burden from the largest radiological accident to date could be detected by monitoring national cancer statistics. Indeed, results of analyses of time trends in cancer incidence and mortality in Europe do not, at present, indicate any increase in cancer rates – other than of thyroid cancer in the most contaminated regions – that can be clearly attributed to radiation from the Chernobyl accident”.
Thyroid cancers following nuclear accidents are caused by ingestion of radioactive isotopes of iodine, which are typically airborne after a major nuclear accident. These can enter the body via the lungs but are normally excreted from the body within a day or two, except from the thyroid gland in which they tend to concentrate. Since the most important isotope, iodine-131, has a half-life of only eight days, the conditions leading to thyroid cancer constitute a fairly short-term problem. It is worth noting that radiation-caused thyroid cancers can largely be avoided by the simple expedient of issuing iodine tablets (actually potassium iodide) to the affected population immediately after an accident. This has the effect of flooding the thyroid with normal, non-radioactive iodine, thus inhibiting it from absorbing any additional radioactive iodine.
Another fantastic piece. It always amazes me that a state like New York, who had the benefit of seeing how this exact same movie played out in Germany could still stupidly shut down nukes is just astounding to me.
Good for you on going viral!
LMK if I should do an outlook for that show on “data center metals”! Maybe we should publish an index??? lol
I’d like to see you rank the nations & states that have most hideously mishandled their energy wealth. Some contestants in addition to Australia are California, Canada, Venezuela , the UK, and Germany (on nuclear alone).
Thank you for your comment, Ken. Spain should be added to the list. The Spanish Socialist government created a unique Spanish tax on safe, always-on, non-polluting nuclear power to partially subsidize intermittent and unreliable solar and wind power. This tax was the reason why a pair of perfectly good nuclear power reactors were on standby on the morning of Monday, April 28, 2025 instead of contributing essential synchronous grid inertia to the Spanish grid. There was a glut of solar and wind generation at mid-day in Spain. The result was a massive deadly mid-day Iberian Peninsula blackout. At least 11 dead. The equivalent of billions of U.S. dollars in economic damage from lost productivity and damaged production equipment. See this July 8, 2025 GreenNUKE Substack article for details:
Why are we the public allowing our elected idiots to make any decisions on new electric supply? The public needs to hold rallies like we’re seeing in Minnesota and let our voices be heard. Renewables will be the death of our country.
So New York tells Germany, “Hold my beer”…no surprise there really.
Here’s the question I’m really eager to hear someone answer, cogently: what the hell is the actual purpose of all these data centers and the presumptive AI that they’re to support? Is it to store billions of useless videos or photos that are created (and never deleted) daily? Is it to support another mind-sucking video game? It to support another round of job destruction after we told people “learn to code”? Is anyone thinking about the societal benefit or harm of these developments? How about how ratepayers (who, surprisingly are also taxpayers…think TIFs, etc) are funding the tech bros’ fever dreams?
Even if NYS built out all the wind and solar upstate that it would need to meet Climate Act goals, it wouldn’t help decarbonize the downstate grid much. As you may know, the upstate grid is about 89% emissions-free already, while downstate uses fossil fuels for around 93% of their generation. And our transmission infrastructure isn’t set up for upstate “renewables” to supply electricity to NYC. The cost of upgrading our bulk transmission grid to the extent required to do that would be prohibitive. Having offed Indian Pt. and refused to consider downstate nuclear in the future, NYC has limited its options to unreliable, expensive offshore wind and batttery storage. But that won’t stop NY politicians from gaslighting the public and pretending the future lies in “cheap” wind and solar. They’re dictating energy policy with their emotions and ideology, not with an understanding of the laws of physics and a basic grasp of economics.
The root cause of this is even crazier. It is because Quebec wanted to be carbon-free....so they started incentivizing their citizens to turn from hycrocarbon fuels to go electric and had to import lots of power from New York, doing absolutely nothing for net zero. 🤡"Québec’s green energy drive means more fossil fuels in New York. "Once an electricity exporter, the province’s decarbonisation effort now depends on US-generated power" https://www.ft.com/content/d7643a1f-4959-4ce6-a2dc-4237335f9a60
Thank you Mr Bryce. The five forces of nature ranked in order of increasing strength are gravity, weak nuclear, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and dogma.
I wish I could make that happen. Alas, Gravitas Ventures has restricted that playback to the US market. You should check to see if it is available in the UK via VOD.
Thank you for your fact-packed analysis (and OpEd) regarding soaring power prices in the greater New York City region. Californians for Green Nuclear Power was one of the groups that made official filings in opposition to the Socialist doctrine-driven plan to needlessly close Indian Point Energy Center. For more than a decade, I lived in Buffalo and later in suburbs of New York City. I lived through some of the chilly polar vortices the region is known for.
Today's New York Times has a story, "Storm Poses Big Threats to Power Grids Across U.S.
Natural gas is a "just in time" energy source. That fact makes regions that depend on it vulnerable. In comparison, nuclear power is invulnerable.
As a consequence of New York state's energy policies, a massive icy blast there will eventually cause many to needlessly freeze to death. Humans are warm blooded animals. Five times as many die from being too cold relative to deaths from heat. To protect public safety, San Onofre in California and Indian Point need to be repowered with new AP-1000 reactors.
The National Weather Service forecast at 6:15 PM PST on Saturday, January 24, 2026 reads:
"Significant Winter Storm to Bring Heavy Snow and Ice Impacts; Dangerously Cold Temperatures Expands Across the East
A significant, long-duration winter storm will bring widespread heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain from the Southern Rockies to New England through Monday. Widespread travel disruptions, prolonged power outages, and vast tree damage is likely. Frigid temperatures, gusty winds, and dangerous wind chills will expand from the north-central US to the Southern Plains, MS Valley, and Midwest....."
The forecast map shows an ice storm warning from central Texas to South Carolina which will down power lines. Already, poweroutage.us shows Louisiana with more customers lacking power than Texas.
Wonderful article. The stupidity in NY is for sure not the fault of the utilities, they are forced to implement those horrendously bad policies. With Winter Storm Fern underway, let's take a minute for a shout out to all the hard working utility crews who will be braving the elements to keep us going.
Thanks. I wouldn't hold my breath on a restart of Indian Point. The cost is estimated at $10B. Link below. The shutdown of that plant borders on criminal. Cuomo, Riverkeeper, and the NRDC, and Kit Kennedy in particular, should be ashamed of themselves.
Ironic after all these years it’s going to be Silicon Valley that gets us to your oft repeated natural gas to nuclear vision for power. There is no other way to generate all that power, and all the engineering horsepower will be devoted to it.
Keep up the great work. I love the quote about you lambast[ing] Australia’s energy policies! Maybe next you can do such speaking tours to Germany, U.K., California, etc.?
Agreed. I realize it likely will never happen, but the energy policy of this country and the execution of that policy is too important to be left to people whose #1 priority is re-election. A completely independent council or commission of no more than 13 or so members would be a good start.
The shutdown of the Indian Point nuclear plant, and many others in the US and around the world, is largely due to an irrational fear of nuclear energy promulgated mainly by politician and media without any real knowledge of the subject. The three most prominent nuclear accidents, Three Mile Island (TMI), Fukushima and Chernobyl demonstrate this.
Three Mile Island: In 1979 a meltdown occurred in one of the reactors in the Pennsylvania TMI plant. Very little radiation was released; the average dose from the incident was less than one per cent of the natural background radiation. To quote the US Senate report on the accident: “The Special Investigation reviewed some available data and the findings of other investigations regarding radiation releases. It found no persuasive evidence that releases during the accident resulted in adverse near-term physical health effects or will result in statistically significant long-term physical health effects"
Concern over the incident may have been exacerbated by the coincidental release of the movie China Syndrome a short time before the accident. Since this movie gave a fictional and very sensational account of the effects of a similar accident, when TMI actually occurred it met a public primed to believe that disaster was imminent.
Fukushima: In March 2011 the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was hit by two major natural disasters in quick succession, first a massive earthquake, then a huge tsunami. When the earthquake occurred all the reactors shut down, as they were designed to do, and auxiliary diesel generators started up to circulate cooling water since the ongoing radioactivity in the reactors still generated a lot of heat. However, the generators were situated below ground level and the tsunami following the earthquake flooded them out with seawater. There were some backup generators above the flood level, but the switchgear to bring them into operation was at ground level and was also shorted out by the tsunami. The company owning the power plant had a fleet of truck-mounted diesel generators at a central location for just such an emergency, but the chaos caused by the earthquake prevented them from getting to Fukushima in time. As a result, over the next several days three of the six reactors at the site overheated and went into meltdown.
While there were over 18,000 fatalities directly attributable to the earthquake and tsunami, there were no fatalities linked to short term over exposure to radiation at Fukushima, nor are any long-term health effects expected in the general public. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) published a report in 2013 on radiation effects from the accident which stated:
• “No radiation-related deaths or acute diseases have been observed among the workers and general public exposed to radiation from the accident.”
• “The doses to the general public, both those incurred during the first year and estimated for their lifetimes, are generally low or very low. No discernible increased incidence of radiation-related health effects are expected among exposed members of the public or their descendants.”
Chernobyl: The 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine was the largest non-military radiological event ever to have occurred. The Soviet reactors in use at the time were designed without much thought for safety. The catastrophe occurred because some tests being conducted on a reactor at the Chernobyl plant went out of control; descriptions of the way operators and management made ad hoc changes and overrode automatic safety features during the tests are hair-raising. According to a 1992 report by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (a part of the International Atomic Energy Agency), “The accident can be said to have flowed from a deficient safety culture, not only at the Chernobyl plant, but throughout the Soviet design, operating and regulatory organizations for nuclear power that existed at that time”.
Chernobyl Cancers and Deaths
A 2008 UNSCEAR report confirmed that there were 28 deaths of first responders from massive radiation exposure in the days and weeks following the accident. A further 19 deaths occurred during the period 1987-2004 in those who had received high doses, although not all of the latter were attributable to radiation exposure. The real death toll, however, is predicted to occur from cancers induced by long-term radiation exposure, although we should be cautious about this. Various environmental NGOs have produced what are generally recognized to be grossly inflated figures. A more realistic figure is contained in a 2006 paper published in the International Journal of Cancer. To quote this paper: “It is unlikely that the cancer burden from the largest radiological accident to date could be detected by monitoring national cancer statistics. Indeed, results of analyses of time trends in cancer incidence and mortality in Europe do not, at present, indicate any increase in cancer rates – other than of thyroid cancer in the most contaminated regions – that can be clearly attributed to radiation from the Chernobyl accident”.
Thyroid cancers following nuclear accidents are caused by ingestion of radioactive isotopes of iodine, which are typically airborne after a major nuclear accident. These can enter the body via the lungs but are normally excreted from the body within a day or two, except from the thyroid gland in which they tend to concentrate. Since the most important isotope, iodine-131, has a half-life of only eight days, the conditions leading to thyroid cancer constitute a fairly short-term problem. It is worth noting that radiation-caused thyroid cancers can largely be avoided by the simple expedient of issuing iodine tablets (actually potassium iodide) to the affected population immediately after an accident. This has the effect of flooding the thyroid with normal, non-radioactive iodine, thus inhibiting it from absorbing any additional radioactive iodine.
Another fantastic piece. It always amazes me that a state like New York, who had the benefit of seeing how this exact same movie played out in Germany could still stupidly shut down nukes is just astounding to me.
Good for you on going viral!
LMK if I should do an outlook for that show on “data center metals”! Maybe we should publish an index??? lol
I’d like to see you rank the nations & states that have most hideously mishandled their energy wealth. Some contestants in addition to Australia are California, Canada, Venezuela , the UK, and Germany (on nuclear alone).
Others?
Thank you for your comment, Ken. Spain should be added to the list. The Spanish Socialist government created a unique Spanish tax on safe, always-on, non-polluting nuclear power to partially subsidize intermittent and unreliable solar and wind power. This tax was the reason why a pair of perfectly good nuclear power reactors were on standby on the morning of Monday, April 28, 2025 instead of contributing essential synchronous grid inertia to the Spanish grid. There was a glut of solar and wind generation at mid-day in Spain. The result was a massive deadly mid-day Iberian Peninsula blackout. At least 11 dead. The equivalent of billions of U.S. dollars in economic damage from lost productivity and damaged production equipment. See this July 8, 2025 GreenNUKE Substack article for details:
https://greennuke.substack.com/p/the-spanish-version-of-the-duck-curve
Why are we the public allowing our elected idiots to make any decisions on new electric supply? The public needs to hold rallies like we’re seeing in Minnesota and let our voices be heard. Renewables will be the death of our country.
Amen!
So New York tells Germany, “Hold my beer”…no surprise there really.
Here’s the question I’m really eager to hear someone answer, cogently: what the hell is the actual purpose of all these data centers and the presumptive AI that they’re to support? Is it to store billions of useless videos or photos that are created (and never deleted) daily? Is it to support another mind-sucking video game? It to support another round of job destruction after we told people “learn to code”? Is anyone thinking about the societal benefit or harm of these developments? How about how ratepayers (who, surprisingly are also taxpayers…think TIFs, etc) are funding the tech bros’ fever dreams?
Asking for a friend…
It's to better market stuff to us that we don't want and can't afford since AI took all our jobs.
Oh, and it might cure cancer, but I doubt it.
Even if NYS built out all the wind and solar upstate that it would need to meet Climate Act goals, it wouldn’t help decarbonize the downstate grid much. As you may know, the upstate grid is about 89% emissions-free already, while downstate uses fossil fuels for around 93% of their generation. And our transmission infrastructure isn’t set up for upstate “renewables” to supply electricity to NYC. The cost of upgrading our bulk transmission grid to the extent required to do that would be prohibitive. Having offed Indian Pt. and refused to consider downstate nuclear in the future, NYC has limited its options to unreliable, expensive offshore wind and batttery storage. But that won’t stop NY politicians from gaslighting the public and pretending the future lies in “cheap” wind and solar. They’re dictating energy policy with their emotions and ideology, not with an understanding of the laws of physics and a basic grasp of economics.
Those are good points. The upstate-downstate divide in NY is profound. And as you say, the upstate grid kept its nuclear plants online and has more low-C generation than downstate. Further, the backlash against alt-energy is raging across the upstate region. Here's just another example of that backlash: https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/rural-copake-residents-push-back-against-215-acre-solar-farm-proposed-near-school
The root cause of this is even crazier. It is because Quebec wanted to be carbon-free....so they started incentivizing their citizens to turn from hycrocarbon fuels to go electric and had to import lots of power from New York, doing absolutely nothing for net zero. 🤡"Québec’s green energy drive means more fossil fuels in New York. "Once an electricity exporter, the province’s decarbonisation effort now depends on US-generated power" https://www.ft.com/content/d7643a1f-4959-4ce6-a2dc-4237335f9a60
It would have helped if Quebec had not refused to refurbish Gentilly II about fifteen years ago. That would be another 650MW of reliable electricity.
Thank you Mr Bryce. The five forces of nature ranked in order of increasing strength are gravity, weak nuclear, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and dogma.
Frustratingly, YouTube tells me that creator of the "Juice" video has not made it available in the UK.
Pity because our energy policy is every bit as dumb as that of New York.
Any chance of opening it up ?
I wish I could make that happen. Alas, Gravitas Ventures has restricted that playback to the US market. You should check to see if it is available in the UK via VOD.
Also, my other documentaries are available. See: https://www.youtube.com/@JuiceTheSeries
Here's our mini-doc, Shrinking Fission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgyug3pb5IM
And here's the mini-doc, Sunblock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8UVYQ0wNgQ
Thank you for your fact-packed analysis (and OpEd) regarding soaring power prices in the greater New York City region. Californians for Green Nuclear Power was one of the groups that made official filings in opposition to the Socialist doctrine-driven plan to needlessly close Indian Point Energy Center. For more than a decade, I lived in Buffalo and later in suburbs of New York City. I lived through some of the chilly polar vortices the region is known for.
Today's New York Times has a story, "Storm Poses Big Threats to Power Grids Across U.S.
Managers of electric grids say freezing temperatures and ice and snow could lead to power outages in many places, potentially leaving millions in the dark." Here's a gift link for details: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/business/energy-environment/storm-power-outage.html?unlocked_article_code=1.G1A.cBFy.U-z4eRx1nZiv&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock Poweroutage.us shows Texas having the greatest number of customers without power at 9:50 AM PDT on Saturday, January 2026.
Natural gas is a "just in time" energy source. That fact makes regions that depend on it vulnerable. In comparison, nuclear power is invulnerable.
As a consequence of New York state's energy policies, a massive icy blast there will eventually cause many to needlessly freeze to death. Humans are warm blooded animals. Five times as many die from being too cold relative to deaths from heat. To protect public safety, San Onofre in California and Indian Point need to be repowered with new AP-1000 reactors.
The National Weather Service forecast at 6:15 PM PST on Saturday, January 24, 2026 reads:
"Significant Winter Storm to Bring Heavy Snow and Ice Impacts; Dangerously Cold Temperatures Expands Across the East
A significant, long-duration winter storm will bring widespread heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain from the Southern Rockies to New England through Monday. Widespread travel disruptions, prolonged power outages, and vast tree damage is likely. Frigid temperatures, gusty winds, and dangerous wind chills will expand from the north-central US to the Southern Plains, MS Valley, and Midwest....."
The forecast map shows an ice storm warning from central Texas to South Carolina which will down power lines. Already, poweroutage.us shows Louisiana with more customers lacking power than Texas.
Wonderful article. The stupidity in NY is for sure not the fault of the utilities, they are forced to implement those horrendously bad policies. With Winter Storm Fern underway, let's take a minute for a shout out to all the hard working utility crews who will be braving the elements to keep us going.
Thanks. And yes, love me some linemen. They are the ones that keep the lights on.
Remember to celebrate on April 18th https://www.linemanappreciationday.com/
Very compelling. Is there a companion piece coming outlining what it might cost to restart the closed NYC nuke facility?
Thanks. I wouldn't hold my breath on a restart of Indian Point. The cost is estimated at $10B. Link below. The shutdown of that plant borders on criminal. Cuomo, Riverkeeper, and the NRDC, and Kit Kennedy in particular, should be ashamed of themselves.
https://www.powermag.com/restart-of-indian-point-nuclear-plant-yes-says-holtec-official/
Thank you for continuing to reinforce the old saying “We have met the enemy and he is us”
Ironic after all these years it’s going to be Silicon Valley that gets us to your oft repeated natural gas to nuclear vision for power. There is no other way to generate all that power, and all the engineering horsepower will be devoted to it.