Alec Baldwin, Actorvist

"The biggest problem is that the government knows what’s going on; they know the situation they created. There is enough evidence that these nuclear plants need to be shutdown."

Alec Baldwin is an actor and political activist who, as a supporter of the Radiation and Public Health Project, has been battling the nuclear industry for over 10 years.

Until I became involved with the Creative Coalition, which is a non-profit group of entertainers and organizers, most of the political work I did was for the Democratic Party.

Initially, I focused on campaign finance reform. I worked on a wide range of projects including funding the legal case in Maine for campaign finance reform and getting signatures in Massachusetts for a clean elections law.

For instance, I spoke with these men who worked at uranium enrichment facilities in Ohio. One of them told me while he was lying in bed, dying of cancer, that he looked out his window at his son playing basketball and realized he had to leave the kid something. So they settled with the Department of Energy.

These men were bought off by the DOE.

I think the facility is dangerous.

I think it has been setup in the classic utility industry construct, where there is a cross contamination from chemical pollutants and situated amongst a politically less aggressive working class.

I went down there and people would ask whether I was going to close down the reactor. They were really asking if we were going to take their jobs away.

I told them I am not here to take your work away.

I want to present you with the facts of Oyster Creek, and let you decide what you want to do.

I want you as a community to say we are choosing to live with contamination. If they make that decision, then that is their choice. But, I have faith that once they are educated they will do the right thing.

What do you think is the largest problem with the Oyster Creek relicensing process?
The biggest problem is that the government knows what’s going on; they know the situation they created. There is enough evidence that these nuclear plants need to be shutdown. They need to be shutdown right now.

Why do you think the government reacts slowly to safety and health concerns from nuclear power?
It’s like any great decision in our society where people take a risk and move forward. Burt Newborn from NYU told me that it really is about perseverance and timing.

When the Supreme Court voted on Brown v. Board of Education they didn’t wake up on the day of the vote with new information. They voted that way because they felt the country was ready for it.

The same is true for a lot of issues like nuclear power and campaign finance reform. If we keep putting pressure on elected officials, our actions will lead to the beginning of the end for these nuclear facilities.