Three accidents turned public opinion; one was probably bad training, one was bad luck, and one was incompetence. Construction cost overruns didn't help. Much of the public's attention is focused on a deep political divide in this country, the looming SS and Medicare/Medicaid financial problems, and our overall debt. I don't see nuclear energy becoming the high priority it should be. I hope I am wrong.
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Originally Posted by Win1894
We really missed the boat on nuclear power generation. We need a national effort in the US that would be on a scale similar to the NASA program the 60s to land man on the moon. Sadly, we focus developmental efforts on inefficient, stop-gap sources of power like solar and wind, which are intermittent, low energy density, short lived, and litter the landscape. We have enough naturally occurring Uranium and Thorium to meet the total energy needs of our country for a thousand years. Fourth and even fifth generation nuclear power is safe, totally green (non polluting), and easily fits into the existing electrical power distribution infrastructure. All it would take is a national commitment between government and industry (like NASA) and, most importantly, the will of the people. The technology to make this happen already exists and is being further developed in the case of fifth generation reactors. Shamefully, we haven't had effective energy leadership in this country for 40 years.
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