For waste, yeah it has to be taken care of. However, nuclear is the only energy resource that we require to do this. All others tend to just let the public (or others in the area) deal with it. Solar also creates waste through mining. Wind is pretty good, but not perfect and the turbines aren’t yet recyclable, and you can bet they aren’t having to pay for their storage. They also will require some form of energy storage that nuclear won’t need, which will likely partially include chemical batteries, which are not environmentally friendly to produce, but again won’t be rolled into their cost.
The anti-nuke movement is largely funded by existing energy companies who don’t want to compete on even ground. They’ve had so many laws passed that increase costs. There are countries where nuclear is much cheaper, which shows that a large part of the cost is regulations, not fundamental costs. Even in the US it’s competitive with offshore wind and coal for cost though, which we still build both of.
Most nuclear waste does not need to be stored for tens of thousands of years either, like you imply. Some does, but not much. Yeah, we still need a solution for that small amount, but those solutions already exist, they just need to be implemented. Again, no other energy gets waste handling rolled into their cost. They just become negative externalities someone else has to deal with. Nuclear is just easy to capture the waste, so they store it. This should be a positive, not a negative.
It’s also ridiculously clean and safe. Even including nuclear accidents (which become less likely each time, and are now almost impossible), it’s next to the safest energy source. The only thing safer is solar, by a tiny amount.
It is a great baseline power source we should be relying on. Obviously I agree, it shouldn’t be everything. Solar and wind are ideal to make up the majority of the grid, but as a safe and reliable supply of power, nuclear should support them. It perfectly fills the gap left by them that otherwise requires massive amount of power storage, which is far from ideal. We should remove the regulations that have kneecapped them to protect traditional dirty energy and provide solutions for permanent waste disposal so it doesn’t artificially increase their costs.
For waste, yeah it has to be taken care of. However, nuclear is the only energy resource that we require to do this. All others tend to just let the public (or others in the area) deal with it. Solar also creates waste through mining. Wind is pretty good, but not perfect and the turbines aren’t yet recyclable, and you can bet they aren’t having to pay for their storage. They also will require some form of energy storage that nuclear won’t need, which will likely partially include chemical batteries, which are not environmentally friendly to produce, but again won’t be rolled into their cost.
The anti-nuke movement is largely funded by existing energy companies who don’t want to compete on even ground. They’ve had so many laws passed that increase costs. There are countries where nuclear is much cheaper, which shows that a large part of the cost is regulations, not fundamental costs. Even in the US it’s competitive with offshore wind and coal for cost though, which we still build both of.
Most nuclear waste does not need to be stored for tens of thousands of years either, like you imply. Some does, but not much. Yeah, we still need a solution for that small amount, but those solutions already exist, they just need to be implemented. Again, no other energy gets waste handling rolled into their cost. They just become negative externalities someone else has to deal with. Nuclear is just easy to capture the waste, so they store it. This should be a positive, not a negative.
It’s also ridiculously clean and safe. Even including nuclear accidents (which become less likely each time, and are now almost impossible), it’s next to the safest energy source. The only thing safer is solar, by a tiny amount.
https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charted-safest-and-deadliest-energy-sources/
It is a great baseline power source we should be relying on. Obviously I agree, it shouldn’t be everything. Solar and wind are ideal to make up the majority of the grid, but as a safe and reliable supply of power, nuclear should support them. It perfectly fills the gap left by them that otherwise requires massive amount of power storage, which is far from ideal. We should remove the regulations that have kneecapped them to protect traditional dirty energy and provide solutions for permanent waste disposal so it doesn’t artificially increase their costs.