Safety is not the prime driver of nuclear concerns. It's the waste. Right now the US stores virtually all the plant waste locally. The Russians do the same thing, but without any sensible storage plans, just a controlled dumping at various sites. I do not know the European waste disposal locations. You can be pretty sure that Iran and North Korea could care less. I would be for nuclear power if a waste solution is developed that is as good as the waste disposal solutions used at solar and wind plants.
See here. "Storing nuclear waste underground at Yucca Mountain for 100,000 years is a terrible idea. A better approach may be to buy some time--until new containment technologies mature."
I thought that I was the only one who uses procrastination as a problem solving technique. "Yeah, we don't really have a good storage solution for nuclear waste, but I'm sure our grandchildren will figure it out." Some of our parents and grandparents were positive we would be commuting to work in flying cars by now.
I don't see that we have much choice other than to invoke everything we can throw at the problem. Though I prefer solar, the technology is not quite there from a cost perspective. Fossil fuels have the obvious problems. Renewables are great, but again limited. Conservation is great but will only get us so far. I think we need to be open to everything - at least if you want to keep your lights and computer on.
I think all fitness centers should convert to motor generators for all their exercise equipment and use the electricity to power themselves and the Starbucks next door. :drum:
Well, Pandora's Box is already open w/r/t nuclear power, but I'm just pointing out that it is a problem that we (the collective we) have created but don't have a reasonable solution for. The Technology Review article seems to be speculating that future generations will be able to solve the problem that we can't, but what if they are wrong? I'm not saying its an easy problem to solve - design a container that will last for > 100,000 years without deteriorating, make it terrorist proof and make sure that future generations will keep their hands off it, even though none of us will be around to explain why they should. For me it has always been my main objection to nuclear power - we don't know what to do with the waste. But ignoring the problem won't make it go away. And pushing it off to future generations seems a little selfish to me.
