The Nuclear Energy Debate in a Nutshell

Yesterday, a Canadian judge sided with Greenpeace in its claim against Ontario Power Generation, that its proposed “Darlington New Nuclear project” poses unacceptable levels of environmental risk, especially with the respect to the disposal of waste.  To me, this is another important reminder of the basics of the debate facing us all: nuclear energy represents a huge boon to our efforts to forge a low-carbon energy future, but we’re desperate for the development of new technologies in this space that pose less threat.

We cannot turn back the clock to the mid-20th Century and reverse our decision to develop the U238/Pu239 reactions, but we can ratchet up our support of other fission reactions, e.g., the decay of thorium, and we can champion the various flavors of fusion, including, perhaps, this kind of aneutronic fusion.