There is always a better way. Here it is with new and improved paragraphs.
I am pro Nuclear in some ways, I like the nuclear fusion that happens every day on the sun. I dont like the nuclear fission that happens in nuclear bombs and I am not particularly happy about the nuclear decay of strontium 90 that happens in my bones because I was born post the age of atmospheric nuclear testing, but hopefully and probably it wont, have a measurable effect on me.
Statistically the most dangerous thing I or any of us do each day (apart from live, that seems pretty dangerous, always ends up in death one day) is probably drive our car. But we are all happy with that, partly because psychologically we feel in control or are familiar with it, the last time our car broke down or didnt start or we crashed into another car in the car park, we were a bit shaken, walked away from it and were psychologically trained a bit more to accept that cars do go wrong, but hey I got away with it and the up side outweighs the downside.
Airplanes have a greater fear factor but are statistically much safer than cars (ok, a modern airliner, not an old bug smasher) but pretty much all we hear about with airplanes is the last time a few hundred poor souls burnt when one crashed or got blown up by a missile. We never hear about the time one of the quadruple redundant flight control computers dropped out and the others carried on or even if the jet engine almost caught fire, but hey the fire suppression worked and the flight carried on and landed on time and no one but the flight crew knew about it because it all worked out OK, and three hundred poor souls have missed out on their psychological training, hey this flying thing is a bit dangerous, but hey the last time it nearly caught fire, well the safety systems kicked in and I got away with it, hey the up side of flying is pretty good, think I will stick with it.
Nuclear is in an even worse boat. No one (or no one I know) lies in bed all nice and warm under their electric blanket going hey the cooling pump on the states nuclear reactor down at the plant 600 miles away failed, but no drama, the second back up kicked in OK and now the maintenance procedure has been amended again to include something that no one thought was possible, this nuclear thing could be a bit dangerous, but hey the blanket is nice and warm, I got away with it and feel all right with my choice.
What sticks in peoples minds is 2 nuclear bombs detonated over cities killing about 100, 000 people in a few seconds and pictures on TV of a whole city being evacuated because some tests weren't done properly, and another city being evacuated because the risk assessment and failure modes and effects analysis was junk and some genius put the electrical control box for the flood control back up pumps below water level and the sea wall was too low because they tried to save a few bucks.
These kinds of problems are industry wide (not just nuclear, in almost every big industry, cars, aircraft, trains, coal power, hospitals, whatever), its complex, at the end of the day engineers and other professionals are trying to make economic and safety decisions that cost millions of dollars to implement and cost billions of dollars if the low probability events occur. The problem with nuclear is that the bad events are rare, but they are big and expensive and that affects all of the risk analysis, which gets rightfully biased to be ultra conservative and that increases costs, to the point that most projects dont get the tick, usually because they are not financially viable.
Its probably not going to change. Get over it. Uranium or Plutonium fission is damn expensive and basically not financially viable because to get the risk to a level that is acceptable to the community is usually too expensive unless its subsidised by the military or government.
Thorium fission might have the same problems. Nuclear fusion in power plants might turn out OK but has years to go.
In the meantime we are stuck with fossil fuels and the existing renewables. Of all the currently available technology and forseeable technology, the ones with the best legs that will have the biggest impact in order are: increased efficiency of power consumers (increased insulation, LED/Fluoro lights, improved industrial processes and waste heat reclamation, better trains, cars and ships), increased efficiency of fossil fuel based generation, wind, solar (and do the last remaining hydro, although most of that wont happen on environmental grounds), tidal, geothermal, wave
. If you want to save the planet, start at home, insulate your house or learn to put on more clothes or shorts and turn off the aircon or heater, put in efficient lighting or even better, learn to do things in the day light and sleep at night, recycle any aluminium you use, recycle your steel, minimise your use of concrete, get an efficient car. Get solar hot water and take shorter showers. Dont drink bottled water. Eat more fresh plants and less processed or cold stored food. Dont consume. Dont fly, use the internet. Sell your car and walk or catch the train or bus. Get a fixie. Turn into a damn hipster. But seriously do all that stuff before you think about putting on solar cells or a wind turbine in your back yard or buying an electric car or demanding a nuclear power plant for expensive power.
BTW I dont do much of that stuff, I consume and enjoy it, but I do think about things before I do them, yes I drive a 6 cylinder SUV, but its not a V8, a little 4 cylinder wouldnt suit what I do with it and I do only have a two minute drive to work. rant = off.
