the electricity comes from? two-thirds of the electricity in united states comes from fossil fuels, chiefly coal and natural gas. 13% comes from renewables, hydro, wind and solar. 19% comes from nuclear power plants like this. the department of energy predicts that electricity production around the world will nearly double by 2040. supporters of nuclear power say that no other source can deliver clean, reliable energy on a massive scale. but those same supporters admit when it goes wrong as it did at fukushima, it can be catastrophic. there s no other energy source that does this, that leaves huge area contaminated, by this strange invisible presence which you know is potentially deadly. that was a clip from pandora s promise, airing right here on cnn. the film s director robert stone is here with me now. thanks for coming in. i appreciate it. great to be here.
and certainly only recently has natural gas tipped that scale. because they last so long. the costs are all paid off. the operating costs are very small, fuel costs are very small. just this year, utilities have closed five nuclear power plants. because of natural gas. they can t compete in the marketplace. those plants that have been closed are very old power plants. all the nuclear power plants are very old power plants. in the film you re basically arguing that oil companies run commercials about alternative energies because they know these will never really take the place of oil. yeah. it s not an existential threat to their business model. absolutely. but nuclear is? nuclear would be. look at france. france went from zero nuclear to 80% nuclear in 20 years. that s the kind of time frame that according to scientists like dr. hansen say that we re got to transition away from fossil fuels. there s no case of renewable energy or efficiency displacing fossil fuels any
ralph nader and michael shillenberger. tonight cnn is presenting pandora s promise. you ll hear why long.term opponents of nuclear power have changed their mind. some say the answer to our going need for energy. here s another clip from the film. we think that somehow we re going to be reducing our energy consumption. actually we just find more and more uses for it. if you look at all the energy that is used by an iphone, not just to make it and to power it but also to power all the servers, all of the stuff that you don t see that the iphone is connected to, it uses as much energy as a refrigerator. okay. but look. the u.s. is poised to be the largest producer of gas and oil in the world. we have the largest deposits of coal. we have the best wind and solar
you actually feel like this is the beginning of a movement. good evening, everyone. welcome to our special report nuclear power the fallout from fear you ve just seen the film pandora s promise . i want to deepen the discussion with nuclear power and the central question about it. namely is it evolving into a plus for the environment or do the risks still outway the benefits. will me is director rob stone director of pandora s promise and former nuclear power plant operator joins us as well. you say this film is completely one-sided. explain. i was really disappointed to see almost no coverage of any
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