Nuclear Innovation Institute, Mother's Day
We were featured in a special Mother’s Day post from the Nuclear Innovation Alliance. You can see their post HERE.
Mothers for Nuclear on how we protect the planet for our children
Updated: Jan 10, 2022
This weekend we celebrate Mother’s Day, which is extra special for me since I get to celebrate it as both a daughter and new mother as well. Though not without its trials and tribulations, motherhood has been a gift that has changed me completely in every fathomable way.
To me, being a mother means making a promise to love our children unconditionally and doing everything within our power to ensure their future is bright. This also includes an obligation to protect the planet for them.
Mothers for Nuclear
This pledge to protect the planet for our children is why founders Kristin Zaitz and Heather Hoff formed Mothers for Nuclear, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness around the benefits of nuclear, demystifying the stigma around nuclear, and creating a community of parents who are concerned about the health of our planet.
“As mothers, we feel a responsibility to protect our children, and the planet that they’ll inherit.”
Taking to the streets (Credit: Mothers for Nuclear)
Zaitz, a civil engineer, and Hoff, a materials scientist, are also both self-proclaimed environmentalists and climate enthusiasts.
Both women work at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California—and when the decision was made to close the plant in 2025, they believed that this was not only the wrong decision for the environment, but humanity as well.
They knew the decision was spurred by misconceptions about nuclear and they aimed to change this. This is what ultimately prompted them to form Mothers for Nuclear.
And in a recent article by the New Yorker, Hoff states that after years of working on site and learning about how safe nuclear was, she eventually realized that “her job no longer seemed to be in tension with her environmentalist views. Instead, it felt like an expression of her deepest values.”
From two moms to a global movement
Forming Mothers for Nuclear was a means for them to educate the public and stop the spread of misinformation.
On the Mothers for Nuclear website, Zaitz says:
“There’s a lot of decisions to make when you’re a mom—what’s the safest thing to do for my child—and so with nuclear energy, I think they think the safest thing is to be against it. But I think moms should be the most vocal supporters of nuclear power.”
Mothers for Nuclear was started five years ago on April 22 (Earth Day), 2016 as a grassroots organization with a simple mission: to begin a dialogue with people who want to protect nature for future generations.
Today, the organization has expanded globally with chapters in Canada, UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
And it continues to gain traction through its advocacy efforts using an extremely powerful conduit to capture concerned audiences: motherhood.
Protecting our planet every day
This Sunday, as we celebrate all moms, I hope that you will also join me in making a commitment to protect this planet too.
Not just on this day, but every day, because protecting the planet is the legacy that we leave behind both for our children and for all future generations to come.
It is true what they say, that no one can ever prepare you for how much love you will have for your child. The promise I make to love mine includes doing my part to protect their home.
And I intend to keep my promise.
Written by Susie Ho, former Senior Advisor at the Nuclear Innovation Institute.