<story><title>Steep decline in nuclear power would threaten energy security and climate goals</title><url>https://www.iea.org/newsroom/news/2019/may/steep-decline-in-nuclear-power-would-threaten-energy-security-and-climate-goals.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>umvi</author><text>Haven&amp;#x27;t nuclear waste recycling and safety features gotten really good in the past few decades? I feel like not many people know just how little waste is created with modern recycling and just how safe nuclear is with modern safety features.&lt;p&gt;Seems like we need a positive PR campaign to help convince folks that nuclear is way better than fossil fuels. This could easily be bipartisan.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pjc50</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s really two kinds of waste: spent fuel (which can be effectively recycled, leaving only a tiny bit of extremely dangerous lanthanides, actinides, and plutonium), and &amp;quot;lower level&amp;quot; waste. The latter includes pretty much every other part of the reactor building after it&amp;#x27;s decomissioned.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; positive PR campaign&lt;p&gt;The nuclear industry has been at this for decades; at this stage, the PR is part of the problem.&lt;p&gt;My view on this is that it&amp;#x27;s probably too late to start building new nuclear plants, the cost overrun problems are severe, and there are plenty of countries that they should not be built in. But that doesn&amp;#x27;t mean we should close the existing ones early. If they can be refurbished economically without compromising safety, we should do that.&lt;p&gt;Switching from nuclear to natural gas indicates that gas is too cheap, and should be subject to carbon pricing and curtailment of new drilling and fracking.</text></comment>
<story><title>Steep decline in nuclear power would threaten energy security and climate goals</title><url>https://www.iea.org/newsroom/news/2019/may/steep-decline-in-nuclear-power-would-threaten-energy-security-and-climate-goals.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>umvi</author><text>Haven&amp;#x27;t nuclear waste recycling and safety features gotten really good in the past few decades? I feel like not many people know just how little waste is created with modern recycling and just how safe nuclear is with modern safety features.&lt;p&gt;Seems like we need a positive PR campaign to help convince folks that nuclear is way better than fossil fuels. This could easily be bipartisan.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Tharkun</author><text>&amp;gt; Haven&amp;#x27;t nuclear waste recycling and safety features gotten really good in the past few decades?&lt;p&gt;I thought you were being snarky at first, but the rest of the comment appears to indicate you&amp;#x27;re being serious. In Belgium we&amp;#x27;ve been stuck in endless discussions regarding what to do with our nuclear waste. We used to dump it in the sea, which was probably a bad idea. Now it&amp;#x27;s stored in barrels which are apparently leaking some kind of radioactive goo[1].&lt;p&gt;So either this waste recycling isn&amp;#x27;t as good everywhere, or we have a different definition of the word &amp;quot;good&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fanc.fgov.be&amp;#x2F;nl&amp;#x2F;informatiedossiers&amp;#x2F;radioactief-afval&amp;#x2F;beheer-van-radioactief-afval&amp;#x2F;berging&amp;#x2F;zeeberging-van-belgisch&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fanc.fgov.be&amp;#x2F;nl&amp;#x2F;informatiedossiers&amp;#x2F;radioactief-afval...&lt;/a&gt; (Dutch)</text></comment>