Nuclear is not necessarily the perfect answer. But it is a very viable one for the next 100+ years.

Disclaimer: I use to operate nuclear plants in the Navy, and I have worked for a couple of companies that provide reactor related services to nuclear power plants.

There is alot of misinformation out there, and there has been (in hindsight) alot of silly statements made by both Pro and Anti nuclear activists.

1) Nuclear Reactors can not blow up like nuclear bombs. Those pesky laws of physics get in the way.

2) Nuclear Reactors, like most industrial processes, can have "Industrial Accidents". Obviously proper planning, construction, training, and maintenance go a long way to minimizing the chances of something nasty happening.

3) From what I hear, the next generation of power plants will actually use the spent fuel from the current generation of reactors. So the issue of long term storage, greater than 300 years, MAY become moot!

4) Current plants are, and next generation plants can, use the fissionable materials from military weapons. So there is another waste stream being taken care of.

5) We can measure levels of radiation down to the tiniest amount, but the amount of radiation require to cause biological changes, as best we can determine, is in the order of a thousand to a million times greater!!!!!

In general, people will get upset that a power plant might give them 0.001 mRem of exposure over 1 year, but ignore the fact that smoking 1 cigarette will give them 5 mRem in 1 minute. [Linked Image]

I think the keys are education, education, and education. (And killing 99% of the lawyers [Linked Image] )

LarryC