[moltuae]

Originally Posted by tintin

The nuclear industry also has a less than perfect track record of concealment of problems, which seems embedded in the industry culture (particularly in the West), so I'm slightly sceptical about safety claims.

As a topical and close to home example, Hunterston B, on the West Coast of Scotland, is still shut down, due to the cracks discovered around the core of that reactor. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47485321

But we're talking about older technology here and dated nuclear facilities. With investment, Nuclear power can be made very safe. Just like the development of electric vehicles, the safety concerns associated with the use of volatile battery technologies and very high current charging are challenges to overcome, not deterrents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclea...eactor_designs

New reactor designs
The nuclear power industry has moved to improve engineering design. Generation IV reactors are now in late stage design and development to improve safety, sustainability, efficiency, and cost. Key to the latest designs is the concept of passive nuclear safety. Passive nuclear safety does not require operator actions or electronic feedback in order to shut down safely in the event of a particular type of emergency (usually overheating resulting from a loss of coolant or loss of coolant flow). This is in contrast to older-yet-common reactor designs, where the natural tendency for the reaction was to accelerate rapidly from increased temperatures. In such a case, cooling systems must be operative to prevent meltdown. Past design mistakes like Fukushima in Japan did not anticipate that a tsunami generated by an earthquake would disable the backup systems that were supposed to stabilize the reactor after the earthquake.[157] New reactors with passive nuclear safety eliminate this failure mode.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor

And the holy grail would be Cold Fusion of course, if we ever crack that elusive problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion


Personally I think that we should also focus on developing better ways to extract geothermal energy along with making nuclear power safer. Solar and wind energy are ok for supplementing small-scale local energy needs but they're far too impractical for meeting global energy needs.