The Oil Drum

My biggest problem with nuclear energy is not nuclear but powe r companies that engineer nuclear power plants.

I've seen a number of reasonable designs for power plants with the pebble bed based reactors seeming the most promising.

Next I think its possible to handle radioactive waste in a responsible manner. I'd think "burning" it makes sense
http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0401010

Basically you use the neutron flux to further degrade the isotopes to ones with short half lives. This seems possible and I don't like the fact that what seems to be a reasonable disposal route has not been aggressively perused.

Maybe forming a international consortium to create standard safe reactor designs and disposal methods is the right answer.

On the same hand and aggressive well funded program on fusion is a must. We should be spending a significant amount of the worlds GNP or is it GWP ? On fusion and cleaner fission and radioactive waste processing.

I'm not saying that the nuclear industry has not done better lately but they need to go into overdrive and show people that clean safe nuclear power is possible and the operation and design of the reactors is open and well understood.

I think that nuclear fission and later fusion reactors for base load and industrial use are a must. I wish we could get by without them but we need them.

On the same hand conservation and solar/wind renewable that don't have a massive negative impact on the land should be perused to lessen the need for nuclear power of any kind.
Other solutions like run-of-river hydro also look like that have a reasonable minimal impact while traditional dams have problems.