Nuclear Power in its current state of developement isn't really ready, because of the huge complications it can generate when not kept in a perfect order. Even so-called "This nuclear can never go wrong because of its design", have proven not perfect, usually due to human errors. I don't mean to come of as an anti-nuclear, I just look at the various incidents that have occured, although usually minor, it only takes one big, to screw things up.
The nuclear power I look forward to, and which i think is the real hero to come, is fusion power. The way it works, it simply cannot physically create disasters similar to fission, because it needs energy to create energy, and if the energy stopped, the output would stop. Additionally to that, it doesn't generate the nuclear waste products associated with fission power, and can thus without worry be installed in more problematic countries.
We have already had a big accident though. It was called Chernobyl and it did not even come close to being as dangerous as other forms of energy production spread out over time. Since then nuclear power has only become much safer, the problem with nuclear power is not a technological problem. The problems is merely a political problem brought about by the irrational mind of humans and our poor ability to reason about risk.
Really? Tell that to the tens of thousand of USSR 18-20 yo soldiers, that were called biorobots during the cleanup. 100% of them either died or ended with very serious cases of cancer and kids with malformation. IMHO one has to be literally mad to advocate for nuclear power.
The problem with nuclear power is trust. That trust was broken with Chernobyl, and broken again with Fukushima.
Pre-Fukushima, most pro nuclear people would argue that the chance of a nuclear accident in an first world country was close to zero. Even I used to argue that.
Now we can say that with new safeguards of more modern reactors that the same kind of accident can't happen again, and it might very well be true. But the voting people will be less inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt. They will rather accept a known and quantified danger instead.
Yeah, they would rather accept the known and quantified danger that kills more people per year than if we had a Chernobyl meltdown every single year. That was my point, its not necessary for there to not be another Chernobyl for nuclear power to the best option and the fact is that it is extremely unlikely for that to ever happen again.
Supposedly modern and completely harmless reactors in sweden have had varying degress of incidents, where maybe some control systems malfunctioned or staff missed some stuff.
This is the kind of, sloppy mistakes that humans make, and aslong as humans is what keeps nuclear reactors from a disaster, I don't consider them safe, which is not to say that they aren't immensely helpful for the environment and energy production while they are in good condition. But the peoples lack of trust is warranted.
The nuclear power I look forward to, and which i think is the real hero to come, is fusion power. The way it works, it simply cannot physically create disasters similar to fission, because it needs energy to create energy, and if the energy stopped, the output would stop. Additionally to that, it doesn't generate the nuclear waste products associated with fission power, and can thus without worry be installed in more problematic countries.