I think the small number of actual nuclear incidents, and the exceptional circumstances they happened in, shows that nuclear power can be safe - certainly safer than freely spewing fossil fuels into the atmosphere. The real issue, to my eyes, is whether it’s economical now.
Considering the rapid advance of renewables, the idea of building new nuclear power plants probably does not have a large role to play going forward. Nuclear power is expensive to build, get up and running, and then put all the security safeguards up. If memory serves at present it’s no longer cheaper than renewables, just cheaper than fossil fuels.
Not even that, true cost of nuclear power was nearly always more than fossils or same. Governments were just very interested in having it for … other reasons and subsidied it to make it viable.
I think the small number of actual nuclear incidents, and the exceptional circumstances they happened in, shows that nuclear power can be safe - certainly safer than freely spewing fossil fuels into the atmosphere. The real issue, to my eyes, is whether it’s economical now.
Considering the rapid advance of renewables, the idea of building new nuclear power plants probably does not have a large role to play going forward. Nuclear power is expensive to build, get up and running, and then put all the security safeguards up. If memory serves at present it’s no longer cheaper than renewables, just cheaper than fossil fuels.
Not even that, true cost of nuclear power was nearly always more than fossils or same. Governments were just very interested in having it for … other reasons and subsidied it to make it viable.
, image source: wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source#Europe