Discuss Richard Wade's answer to: Is nuclear power safe?

Do you think other countries will follow Germany's lead and disable their nuclear power?

Richard Wade
Richard Wade Answered:

In the short term, nuclear power can be made safER than it currently is, but I wouldn't use the blanket term "safe."  The disasters at Chernobyl and Japan revealed vulnerabilities that are present in many nuclear facilities around the world. If we only discover vulnerabilities by waiting for major screw-ups, then many, many people will die in the learning process. This is not being handled in a proactive, intelligent way.

In the long term, nuclear power has a very serious safety threat in its waste products, and the people who are making money from nuclear energy are basically choosing to not think about it. Many of these extremely dangerous waste materials will remain both hot and dangerously radioactive for thousands of years, and if stolen, they can be made into very nasty weapons.  So far, nobody has found an acceptable solution for what to do with tons and tons of the stuff, so it's simply stored in pools at the nuclear plants. The expensive, not-very-secure storage is rapidly filling up.

Were are you going to bury thousands of tons of hot poison in a place that remains secure from theft, dry, and geologically stable for thousands of years?  Who will still be there to guard it from tampering when nobody even speaks the ancient language on the rusted signs that say "Warning: Radioactive Waste. Keep Out"?  This will be a curse for future generations.

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ozra
ozra Thinks this answer is Helpful:

Good insight; problem is of course the moneyed maniacs in command. A fact of life is that one hour`s noon day sun over any of the world`s deserts creates enough energy to power the whole world for 24 hours. Now, mention this to someone and you get the usual BS replies, such as we don`t have the technology (hello?), or it will be too expensive (as opposed to the cheap alternative of nuclear?), or any of the other smarmy answers. Another problem is that people really don`t care about 1000 years into the future; our species is truly the most murderous virus this planet has ever seen.

A frustrated Being
 
John F. Remenyi
John F. Remenyi

It's a fact of life that there must be a monetary incentive in place in order to motivate people to build things.  The infrastructure cost and logistical challenges to solar prevent it from be a practical solution for much of the world (for now).  A nuclear plant can be built just about anywhere (geographically speaking, of course. They don't belong next to preschools or residential neighborhoods), and can deliver ROI in a predictable and consistent fashion.  Waste disposal is a serious challenge, but it also creates a market for additional industry in the form of recycling and proper management.  Useful applications will be found for many of these materials in time.  Human ingenuity has brought us far enough to produce centuries worth of power from a small quantity of uranium.  I am confident that our ingenuity can also put the byproducts to good use and/or safe rest.  Also, it will be may thousands of years before english, spanish and mandarin are forgotten tongues, and though humanity has a seemingly unlimited capacity for murder, destruction and evil, we have also demonstrated a capacity for creativity, compassion and goodness that no other organism can begin to approach.
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