Nuclear power: A dream that failed

[johnd83]

1. The real failure is that nuclear power has become synonymous with "light water boiling reactors"

or the high pressure variant. Boiling water with nuclear power is like attaching an internal combustion engine to a horse drawn carriage and not making any other changes to the design. The real failure is that research was stopped on other alternatives that are safer, more stable, and don't produce long lasting nuclear waste (thorium, breeder reactors, etc). What really worries me is that we have aging reactors that we can't replace with other sources (yes, even renewable can't come online fast enough) so we are stuck with unsafe old power plants. So the failure is not technological, it is political. The thing that people forget is that coal releases extreme amounts of radiation in the smoke and in the coal ash. It is not as concentrated as nuclear waste but it is still very "hot" and is ALWAYS released into the environment.