COP28 Dubai

When Heather Hoff and I founded Mothers for Nuclear in 2016, many existing nuclear plants in the United States were under near-term threat of premature closure, including our home plant Diablo Canyon. We launched Mothers for Nuclear partly out of our horror that our country was closing low carbon energy sources in the middle of the escalating climate crisis, and we knew we needed to do something about it. We launched a website and social media, pursued as many media appearances as possible, held demonstrations, organized supporters, built coalitions, and more. We were relentless and we valued action over polish. In our first year, a well meaning consultant called us “amateur” and we decided to take it as a compliment - we were genuine, not to be mistaken for corporate PR.

Fast forward to today, Diablo Canyon has applied to extend their operating licenses, and the US and most of the world is rapidly flipping their nuclear energy strategies - as evidenced just this week at COP28 by 22 countries signing their intention to triple nuclear capacity by 2050.

This week I’ve had the pleasure to meet Marc Altés (pictured above) and Guillem Sanchis Ramires, cofounders of Spanish pronuclear environmental group Econucleares. I feel a special affinity with them as I see so many parallels with the journey Heather and I have been on for the last eight years. Spain is currently planning to close their seven existing nuclear reactors and replace the generation with natural gas. These two are actively fighting this phaseout and communicating with whomever will listen. I especially love their homemade graphics (who doesn’t love a dog in a hard hat?!), reminiscent of our many hand-painted pronuclear signs. Amateurs are necessary; amateurs will win this. Keep up the great work Econucleares!

- Kristin Zaitz

#netzeronuclear #cop28 #nuclearenergy #mothersfornuclear