Ginger Wireman
My story is unique, as I have had a positive relationship with nuclear power since I was a child. My father was an engineer, and a field trip as a kid to the Connecticut Yankee plant showed me that nuclear was a clean and safe form of energy. I live in Richland, WA, which happens to be home to the Hanford Nuclear site. Besides growing up with a father who could explain the process of nuclear energy, I also have friends who work at the Columbia Generating Station in Richland, who have further cemented my stance that nuclear energy is safe.
Even after the disaster in Chernobyl, I championed nuclear as a safe and reliable form of carbon-free energy—even writing a speech for a communications class that nuclear power needed more research and was less environmentally invasive than hydroelectric power.
My husband and I love to spend time in the outdoors paddle boarding, skiing, sailing, and camping. I have experienced first-hand the effects of climate change, choking through smoke-filled summers due to raging forest fires the last five years, and mourned the loss of a dense snow pack in the winters.
For the sake of our environment and preserving it for our children, I continue to advocate for nuclear power and encourage other mothers to do the same. I was on the founding board of a local greenway land trust and volunteered to protect the Hanford Reach of the Columbia as a national monument.
The development of small modular reactors (SMRs) are hope for the future, and I advocate for the re-opening of Yucca Mountain and other existing nuclear waste repositories. I also wants people to realize that the US Navy has been operating nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for over 50 years with a stellar safety record, showing that SMRs are safe and reliable even in war-time conditions and variable weather.
My final message? We need carbon reductions now!