Nuclear energy should be a part of our future energy mix. But there are issues with how to handle it’s waste that need to be addressed with research. As nuclear energy becomes a larger component of our energy mix, there will be more spent nuclear waste, mining of fissionable metals, transport of the ore and purification of the ore into nuclear fuel - all of that carries risks with it and need to be dealt with in an analytical, thorough and fear-free manner.
One of the clear drawback to wind power is recovery of spent materials. We need to do a better job of both research and recovery technology, along with development of after markets for recovered waste. Similar dynamics should happen with solar end-waste. Currently there is no centralized effort for funding and doing the research and development, this is an area that I hope a Biden Administration brings some focus to. Power companies and their component and equipment suppliers need to be part of that process, but they can’t be left as the key decision-makers.
The coal derivative coking coal is used in steel making. The coke is used to reduce iron ore to the metal via carbon displacement of oxygen in the ore. The process of making the coke does use a lot of energy and leaves behind waste such as heavy metal residues. There are ways that I can re-imagine that process, mostly around reclamation of the waste material and sale of that recovered material. But I would prefer to completely reinvent the steel-making process to use CO compounds and re-useable ceramics. My imaging of the new steel making process would be net CO compound neutral, since I would use high frequency waves to strip CO compounds to carbon and oxygen, use the carbon to reduce iron ore to iron on a bed of hot high temperature ceramic beads (releasing CO compounds that can be trapped, compressed and sold for industrial use, one being making more carbon for steel-making).
Your point that nothing is 100% risk-free is a good one. But, as you pointed out with nuclear power, the choices that we make can minimize the risk, or at the least give a high return of benefit for a level of assumed risk.
My approach is to research and innovate out of a problem, so when I see a problem, the next things I start seeing are opportunities to turn that problem into useful products. Maybe that is the arrogance of an Engineer, but I have also seen nothing in my life that says that belief in the power of research and innovation is wrong.
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