79-09-A4
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Nuclear Power[edit]
Transcript[edit]Several weeks ago the modern day Luddites were out in full force. The Luddites, you'll recall, were people in England who wanted to stop the industrial revolution back in the last century. The took to the streets and tried to smash factory machinery, fearing it would put them out of work. Today's Luddites are opposed to generating electricity by the use of nuclear generators. I'm sure many of them are sincerely motivated and truly believe there is great danger to mankind in the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. But, I'm also sure many of them aren't aware that the whole anti-nuclear movement is infiltrated by some of the same disruptive elements which sent so many young people into the streets to riot during the Vietnam war. We are naive indeed if we think that day of worldwide anti-nuclear demonstrations several weeks ago just happened by accident. There were disturbances and violence in West Germany, France, Spain and I don't know how many other countries besides the dozen or so demonstrations here in the U.S. I said the movement was worldwide, but I have to qualify that. There were no such demonstrations behind the Iron Curtain. Consider this: 11Nuclear Power not only gives mankind the key to a practically limitless source of energy, but also means the creation of one of the most modern branches of industry which significantly contributes to the development of science and technology". Now who do you suppose said that? Well, it was Soviet Prime Minister Alexie Kosygin who was in Prague in May to see the first Czechoslovakian nuclear power station go into full operation. Earlier, and by coincidence on the same day as the Three Mile Island accident, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary signed an agreement to start a huge new nuclear plant in the Ukraine. Industrial output is directly proportionate to the energy supply a nation has available. Both Czechoslovakia and East Germany hope to be getting 40 percent of their electrical power from nuclear generators by 1990 . That's only 10 years and a few months down the road. Restrictions in our country are such that if we started a new plant tomorrow it couldn't be operating by 1990. Incidentally, there were no news stories about Three Mile Island in the controlled Soviet press. I don't have the figures on how many nuclear generators are operating in the Soviet Union itself, but there are four in East Germany and four more planned; Romania has ordered four from Canada, Bulgaria has two, Hungary is building its first and Czechoslovakia is to build four more. If the U.S. were producing 40 percent of its electricity from nuclear generators we would be almost independent of the OPEC oil cartel if not totally so. What a dent that would make in our trade imbalance and in inflation. As I said before I'm sure many of our anti-nuclear protestors are sincere. I just can't help but wonder why they don't start some demonstrations in East Germany or Czechoslovakia, or Russia for that matter. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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