Nuclear energy is the path forward for energy production. Government subsidies need to be withdrawn. Onerous regulations need to be addressed and removed. Opening up to the private sector could work much more efficiently.
Europe has smaller, efficient, and productive nuclear energy plants because they have essentially standardized the specifications and simplified the regulations, including application and permitting processes. Everything is cheaper when you build it all the same. They take up less space and safety is paramount. It is worthy to note that we have had three examples of the events of nuclear power accidents, but actual death and destruction from those accidents are almost non-existent. Additionally, recovery of the actual areas has occurred and normalized. Better education for the public is necessary.
My family has extensive experience of being on nuclear power plant sites. Over and over again there were delays due to constant changes from the government on specifications. Completion dates were missed and costs were driven up exponentially. At the Fermi plant in Michigan, there was a change mandated of a paint covering on the piping that was already installed in close to 80% of the plant. Every inch of the piping had to be scraped and the covering reapplied. There was no difference in the composition of the covering, but it was purchased from another supplier that was awarded a supply contract. This in itself was not unusual, but it was greatly speculated at the time that the vendor was a large contributor to a certain governor in Michigan at the time. We will never know. But standardizing specs would eliminate the possibility of these kind of shenanigans.
Oh, and one of the big public resistance points has been what are we going to do with the spent rods/fuel?
With the evolution of technology and the success of SpaceX, how far from it’s reusable spaceships to disposable space ships or transport shuttles that we can load up and just shoot into the sun where the miniscule fart of radioactivity is not going to have any effect whatsoever? Just sayin’.