[The_rationalist]

While I can't agree with all of your strawman, yes indeed many problems are too complex/needs too much knowledge for most people to understand them. Humans brains are buggy by default and without cognitive debiasing one is likely to fall in mental trap,especially if we talk about nuclear which evoke fear in most brains and emotions destroy reason.

[jay_kyburz]

It's difficult to evaluate nuclear using reason alone, because a large part of the equation is a moral issue, and we all have different morals.

Many of us believe it's immoral to leave behind nuclear waste for future generation to care for. Not only do you have to store it somewhere, you have to secure it so that it can't be misused, for thousands of years.

[The_rationalist]

Please, just quantify. we all have different morals No we do not, all non irrational humans are utilitarists, and many are without even knowing the "concept".

believe it's immoral to leave behind nuclear waste for future generation to care for. Do you understand that nuclear waste is just a kind of pollution, which should be compared with other pollutions such as C02 emissions. It is estimated that C02 kill 1000000 humans per year Nuclear wastes kill 0 human per year. It has not killed even one human in all nuclear history.

Most people who talk about nuclear waste don't know anything about nuclear wastes... And they don't realize they talk about something they don't know. With recycling technologies such as what France do since decades, nuclear wastes generate useful byproducts (MOX). France only generate a few tons of nuclear waste per year, recycle more than 90% of it. 0.1% of the wastes are "dangerous" which means don't be exposed to them more than a few days if you don't want to increase your ageing. 0.1%.... That's a few kilos per year. The rest stop being radioactive 10 years after production.

Those 0.1% are safely contained since 70s and will never be an issue. Geological containment is only a marketing for pleasing those with the irrational fear described in my last comment.

[jay_kyburz]

Yes, leaving behind any pollution is immoral. And I have some concerns about the massive growth we are going to see in batteries in the next century. People say they are easy to recycle but my understanding is that they are not currently.

I also have concerns about heavy metals, such as cadmium and mercury, but I believe we should move our society away from producing those wastes as well.

You say it will never be an issue, but it will always be some issue, even if very small, and I think its just rude to leave waste behind for future generations when we can choose alternate energy sources that don't pollute, or just go without the energy.

[rmrfrmrf]

Meanwhile, incidence rates of thyroid cancer continue to rise.