Back in April I posted about concerns I had about the Obama administration appointment of Daniel B. Poneman as deputy secretary for the DOE. Just to recap, Poneman isn’t a scientist but does have expertise in the areas of arms control, nuclear proliferation and export controls. He is also an “insider” with the inside-the-beltway think-tankers, and I noted then that when high-level positions are populated by those who have been annointed as an expert by other beltwayers, in recent years they’ve tended to be more of the “problem” than the “solution.”

The problem is that major new investments in nuclear energy understandably cause some anxieties among the public. This is a legacy of the ham-handed way government officials and utility companies have handled several well-known major episodes in this nation’s history of nuclear power.

So, when there are substantial and significant arguments that investments in nukes is a necessity, at least in the next century to deal with global environmental problems, it sure doesn’t help when Poneman pulls crap like this.

Seriously, Poneman is bad news and needs to be watched . . . because we probably need nuclear power, and if that is going to happen, it won’t be by shoving it down the public’s throat.

h/t to at Nature’s Great Beyond blog.

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