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Sam McPheeters

Sam McPheeters is a freelance writer living in Pomona, CA. His writing has appeared in The Chicago Reader, OC Weekly, The Stranger, Vice, and The Village Voice.

Recent Articles

Disarmament How?

With Apocalypse Never, Tad Daley attempts to save the world.

Sam McPheetersMay 19, 2010
(AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

To tackle the issue of nuclear disarmament in the 21st century, you need the attack of a horror movie: Scare the crap out of the audience, but leave some ray of hope before the credits roll.

The Hidden Threat to the Nuclear Renaissance

The revival of the nuclear energy industry carries the risk of a Wall Street-level financial meltdown, and then some.

Sam McPheetersFeb 19, 2010
The cooling tower of Trojan Nuclear Plant, near Rainier, Oregon, which has been out of operation since 1993. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

It's a little misleading to call America's renewed interest in nuclear power a full-blown renaissance. For one thing, the renaissance hasn't happened yet. Even with the perfect storm of global warming, dwindling fossil fuels, and the second Bush presidency, the current zeal for new nuclear power has fed on speculation for the last decade. It will have to do so for a long time to come. Tuesday's news that President Barack Obama agreed to provide $8 billion in federal backing for two reactors in the state of Georgia -- the first nuclear plants cleared for construction in nearly 30 years -- ignored the massive financial, political, and technical hurdles between announcement and production.