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Alex Roetter's avatar

Nuclear, despite public opinion historically (now changing), is the safest form of power per unit energy generated. The rise of cheap wind and solar is fantastic, and that coupled with energy storage is a huge part of the solution. That said, we will always need clean base load power. Nuclear ramping up (at the expense of CO2/particulate emitting plants like gas and coal) is a huge win. As others point out below, there are waste management issues to solve, but the right way to think about this is risk per unit powered generated. On that metric, nuclear is by far the safest form of power humanity has ever invented/discovered. That said, nuclear risks intuitively seem scarier than the chronic risks we just accept from fossil fuel plants, e.g. air pollution, asthma and cancer deaths, climate change, etc. Humans did not evolve to properly reason about "unlikely but scary" events, as compared to "likely but less dramatic" ones. For example, why are people who live in landlocked areas more scared of sharks than high blood pressure? I do hope that public opinion is turning here and becoming more based on the actual risks, and that we all work together to find a path forward. The bipartisan support and recent uptick in acceptance for nuclear is very encouraging!. Congrats to you on the investment!

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John's avatar

It is past time to stop nuclear entirely and begin the decommissioning process on existing. It can and should be replaced with wind, solar, and water. All much cheaper, cleaner, and more efficient without need for massive backup of gas or other. Enough WWS could be installed to repair the power crisis very quickly: before, in fact, financing for sufficient nuclear, never mind construction, can be arranged.

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