are from a comic and a novel, respectively.  They are only secondarily cinematic.

I never thought I'd write, say, or think those words, but there they are.

George (of whom I am definitely NOT a fan) uses the words, "safe" and "clean" for the same reasons that any politician would. "Nuclear power," as a phrase, makes many many Americans shudder. Everything we've used as a large-scale energy source has had some terrible downsides. But most Americans don't wince in agony if you say the word, "coal" or "oil;" the general public nods and thinks, "That's how we do energy... there's some downsides, but that's how we do it..." These sources are generally accepted as the norm and unavoidable (although hopefully that's changing...).

Nuclear power, though, is viewed in a Cold War frame of mind about the word "nuclear."

I'm  not surprised to hear any political power feel the need to specify that, when they're talking about energy options, they're talking about the SAFE and CLEAN kind of nuclear power. Not the three-eyed fish, end of the world kind.