While I don’t want to necessarily sign myself up for a debate and I don’t think nuclear energy is perfect, I think pound for pound it’s a better alternative for large scale power production than fossil fuels. Any issue that nuclear energy has, fossil fuels have as well, and usually worse on a per kWH basis. We’ve just lived with those ramifications for so long that we’re more comfortable dealing with it. A great example is nuclear waste. Yes, it’s a problem that needs to be dealt with, but so is coal waste. We just already have infrastructure in place already for coal waste, and coal waste is much more abundant. Per kWH, the nuclear waste generated is on the order of grams while the waste generated by coal power plants per kWH is on the order of kilograms. And coal fired power plants create radioactive waste as well, usually from incidental uranium and thorium, so we already have to take that into account. So yes it’s an issue, but the amount of waste that needs to be dealt with is much lower overall.
Yup. And if you want to look up more info on how to do it correctly, look up hard drive shucking.