This is why I am against nuclear energy. Solar, wind, tidal or geothermal energy has no toxic waste.
When people talk about nuclear energy being "clean", they never talk about nuclear waste. When they talk about it beign "cheap" or low cost, they leave out the costs of storign nuclear waste and guarding it for over 200,000 years until it no longer presents a danger. They also dont' factor in all the settlements for medical problems form beign exposed to radioactive waste.
In the UK, Europe and the US, operators have to put aside funds to pay for decommissioning and waste storage. Nuclear is expensive to build, expensive to decommission, and very cheap to run as it produces shit loads of power from a very small amount of fuel. It's also really fucking safe - 100 times safer than fossil fuel power generation, even factoring in the Chernobyl cluster fuck.
High level nuclear waste (spent fuel rods, essentially) is usually stored onsight in cooling ponds for around 50 years because by that stage, 90% of the fuel rod's radioactivity has decayed making it much safer to repackage, transport and dispose. Much is often made of the long half life of some radionuclides, but they make up a very small percentage of the actual waste.
This means that the fuel that was used in the first generations of power stations is just now becoming ready for long term geological disposal. And here's the problem: no-one wants a nuclear waste disposal facility in their back yard, because radiation is really fucking scary. But sooner rather than later, someone in government is going to have to stop kicking the can down the road, dig a deep hole somewhere that the most geologically exciting thing that has happened in the last ten million years is some occasional rain, and bury that shit in a crap load of boron impregnated concrete.
I really have an issue with your statement that nuclear power is safe.
As a persons who got leukemia from (most l9ikely) X-rays, which I was told was "safe", I am nto so trusting of the arbitrary levels of what was set to be considered to be "safe". Any exposure to radiation has a risk.
Remember the aruguement from believers that says it is so unliely that the universe woudl be so finely tuned for life to exist as it does on earth, and the counter arguement is that life does exist, so a remote possibility is still possible? Well, exposure to small "safe" amounts of radiation having a effect on a person's health may be improbable, but it still is possible (as i foudn otu form personal experience).
When it comes to nuclear power, the storage of waste, is nto safe over the long term. It takes over 200,000 years to be considered "safe", but it still puts out snall amounts of radiation, which although improbable can still cause health issues.
That dons't een deal with natural diasters like what happened at Fukashima or Chernobyl. At Chenobyl mbody can live near it, and the plants and water around ti are still contaminated. Ruinning water carries the contamination to other areas.
Just that nuclear plants are expensive to decomission should make peopel wary. Because any corporation that has to spend money on cleanup for soemthign that will no longer produce profits, often cuts corners. Rdiation is something you can't EVER do half assed.
I was only mod3erately against nuclear power, but stil against it, until I was diagnosed with leukemia. Now I really question so called "safe levels" and wonder if things don't sometimes get fudged for higher profits and smoothed over with campaign contributions. I have become adamantly cynical about nuclear power beign safe.
I no longer consetn to casual E-ray use on my prwson, I wont' go through the new airport scanners that irradiate people to check for weapons, and I have even cut back on how often I fly in general, because you get exposed to more dasiation form outer space (mostly from teh sunh) at the higher elevations, as my oldest sister and her husband have been told by their doctors who actually knew they flew a great deal over their lifetimes, just from examination alone before asking.
It was really upsetting for me to see thsi video, wher I wondered how much of the increases in cancers are due to nuclear testighn releasign radiation the world and hwo much of it is as officials claim due to just peopel livign longer.
It is a matter of urgency. Currently, Nuclear is better than fossil fuels. In the long run, we have to switch to renewable sources. With the renewables, the current obstacle is it's unpredictable nature and lack of cheap storage options. As of now, experts agree that we can not switch fully to renewable sources and run a modern grid. If we can figure out good storage (batteries), we can solve this issue. On the other hand, transmutation and partitioning technology that is being researched in the nuclear field is also of importance. This can make nuclear energy safe and sustainable. In addition, nuclear fusion seems to be making rapid progress as well.
Thorium Molten salt reactors are interesting, too. Inherently safer, way more efficient as you can remove neutron absorbers before they 'poison' the reaction, very thermally efficient...
Too bad that molten sodium salts are so fucking corrosive.