I Don't Know Whether to Trust Nuclear Energy Breakthrough

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Whenever I read about a new development in nuclear technology, I’m almost always torn between being excited about it and just plain terrified. Okay, I get it, Nuclear energy is clean, it’s efficient and it generates carbon-free electricity.

There was a recent announcement from researchers at Argonne National Laboratory about using a compound molecule to make reactors safer. These people melted liquid plutonium oxide at temperatures above 4,900°F without any contamination whatsoever. Incredible.

I really don't know why we keep investing billions of dollars into a technology for which we have cleaner and significantly less risky alternatives?

It’s great that Argonne scientists are using supercomputers to predict electron behavior with “quantum mechanical accuracy,” but shouldn’t we be directing more resources toward energy sources that aren’t capable of melting down and wrecking entire regions in the first place?

I see why most people have faith in nuclear power though, it’s incredibly powerful and in theory, could help us move away from fossil fuels. But then there’s the whole issue with nuclear waste, which we haven’t figured out how to effectively deal with. And then there are accidents, Fukushima or Chernobyl and this should remind us that when things go wrong with nuclear energy, they really go wrong.