S. David Freeman and Leah Y Parks have published a book titled All-Electric America: A Climate Solution and the Hopeful Future.

There are a number of visionary sections of the book that appeal to me. However, I was not surprised to find out that the book takes a strong position in opposition to nuclear energy. I’ve long been aware of S. David Freeman, his career in the electricity production enterprise, and his forty-fifty year old position on nuclear energy.

With the help of the book’s publicist, I was able to arrange an interview with Dave and Leah. As luck would have it, our arranged appointment was at noon on January 22, 2016. That is the day when the mid-Atlantic region of the US was scheduled to receive an epic snowstorm that the Weather Channel had named Winter Storm Jonas.

Jonas arrived in Lynchburg at about 7:30 am, almost exactly when the forecasters predicted about 72 hours in advance of the storm. At noon, when we started talking, it had not yet arrived in Washington, DC, where David was located. Since Leah was on the west coast, she had no weather related comments to make during the discussion.

The presence of that storm gave me a little bit of ammunition for discussing the limitations of an All-Electric America vision that avoids both fossil fuel and nuclear energy, instead planning to rely on wind, solar and storage.

I may be a little biased, but I think this might be one of the more intriguing Atomic Show’s yet.

One of the interesting aspects of the conversation was realizing that Freeman traces his opposition to nuclear energy to the enormous costs that were being imposed on TVA as a result of the Three Mile Island accident. He might have been a little taken aback by the way I understood his experience and provided a different point of view on the basis for the disruptive changes ordered by the NRC.

I think you might also enjoy the segment in which Freeman appeals to the authority of President Carter and his proclaimed training as a nuclear submariner, despite the documented historical fact that LT Jimmy Carter resigned his commission and returned to Plains, GA about 14 months BEFORE the first nuclear powered submarine reported that it was “Underway on nuclear power.”

In fact, when LT Carter left the Navy, the USS Nautilus was still in the drydock at the Electric Boat shipyard. It wasn’t launched until January of 1954; Carter was in Plains by October of 1953.

Note: I called Leah immediately after we finished the show to exchange a little more information. We ended up talking for about a half an hour about shared values and dreams.

I apologize for forgetting to use my mute button. I’ve a bit of a cold, so you can hear my breathing while my guests are talking. No excuses.