Solar or Wind vs. Nuclear - The New York Times | Opinion | Letters

To the Editor:

Re “The New Atomic Age We Need” (Op-Ed, Nov. 28), by Peter Thiel:

In his zeal to portray nuclear power as our post-carbon panacea, Mr. Thiel belittles the devastation caused by past reactor accidents.

He also ignores the vulnerability of nuclear plants to sabotage and terrorism, makes no mention of the unsolved nuclear waste dilemma, and blithely declares that “the most fundamental obstacle to the success of nuclear power” is its “high cost.”

While Mr. Thiel, a venture capitalist, says he stands ready to invest in a next generation of unproven nuclear plants, he sweeps aside the wind and solar industries’ remarkable gains of the last decade. He claims that they are not “growing anywhere near fast enough to replace fossil fuels...”

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PHILIP WARBURG
Newton, Mass.

The writer, an environmental lawyer, is the author of “Harness the Sun”and “Harvest the Wind.”