As Biden and his wrecking crew shut down our electric grid, you may see articles like this one which encourages subsidizing nuclear power for our future electric needs:
Please, p-l-e-a-s-e, PLEASE DON'T DO THIS.
I have a number of reasons for making this plea, which are based on 25+ years of experience in the nuclear industry.
Regardless of how "safe" they may appear on paper, all such plants are ticking time bombs ... mostly because they are run by idiots. I have seen licensed operators knowing violate safety limits, fail to recognize safety system test failures, fail to correctly follow both simple and complex procedures, and suffer from crucial misunderstandings of their plant's design and construction details. Such errors CANNOT be corrected by human operators or computers programmed by humans. We've got over 75 years worth of experience which proves that.
In addition, the US has refused to address the nuclear waste issue, and it would be foolhardy to continue to produce such waste until we do so. Here is one result of that refusal, and there are many, many more:
On top of that, these plants are money pits ... mostly because no one in the US is capable of efficiently running huge construction and operating projects any more. A good example of this is the debacle resulting from the planned expansion of Plant Vogtle from 2 units to 4. You can find some of the details here:
https://cleanenergy.org/blog/vogtle-units-3-4-vcm-23-six-more-months-700-million-more-dollars/
In addition, the mismanagement of the Vogtle expansion cause major financial difficulties for both Westinghouse and Toshiba, the former declaring bankruptcy and the latter having to sell off a major portion of assets to cover its losses:
https://www.ajc.com/news/toshiba-pays-georgia-power-billion-for-plant-vogtle/k5l41QLRyL19RUoZlrcCLK/
So, please don't fall for any BS promoting nuclear power. It's potentially dangerous (think Chernobyl and Fukushima), prohibitively expensive, and chronically mismanaged; and it produces radioactive wastes with exceptionally long half-lives which NO structures are capable of safely storing for more than a few thousand years at best (most of which have failed in less than one hundred years). It's one of the WORST things humanity has ever done.
Sheesh !!!
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