Professor Jenkins, quoted in that Bloomberg piece, co-authored an article in Foreign Affairs last spring (May-June issue) titled "The Paths to Net Zero". Worth a look, if only as an index of what John Kerry and the rest of the Biden Administration will regard as respectable opinion.
Well down in that article, there's this about nuclear power:
Independent of renewables, nuclear power already contributes massively to cleaner grids. Every year, some 440
operational nuclear reactors account for lower global carbon dioxide
emissions of an estimated 1.2 billion metric tons. In the United States,
research suggests that
keeping most existing nuclear plants open would be far less expensive
than many other policy options. In fact, most countries would do well to
expand their nuclear power even further to cut back on their emissions.
In the West, however, major expansions are not on the horizon: public
opposition is strong, and the cost of building new reactors is high, in
part because countries have built too few reactors to benefit from the
savings that come with repetition and standardization. Yet in other
parts of the world—especially China and South Korea, which have more
active nuclear power programs—the costs are much lower and public
opposition is less pronounced. Moreover, whereas countries once designed
and built their own reactors, today many simply import them. That model
can create new risks—the sector’s leading exporter today is Russia, a
country not renowned for its diligence regarding reactor safety or the
security of nuclear materials—but it also has the potential to make
commercial nuclear technology available to many countries that could not
develop and deploy it safely on their own. Abu Dhabi’s purchase
of four gigantic South Korean–built reactors, the first of which is set
to start operating next year, shows the promise of this model. The same
approach could work for other countries that currently satisfy their
large energy needs with fossil fuels, such as Saudi Arabia.
The complete
Foreign Affairs piece is
here
If this is what the Bidenistas are buying (and why wouldn't they? A professor! From Princeton!!) there may at some point be an attempt to convince the public that nuclear is not all bad.
OK, he's only an assistant professor. But still.