I've been all for nuclear power after I came to understand that it has been made so much safer than in the past AND they most likely won't be hiring idjits who will allow another 3 Mile Island to happen.
Three Mile Island was caused by the operating company not paying to fix stuff and did not provide as much training as should have been required. The NRC was partly to blame for not smacking Met Ed prior to the incident. But, as incidents go, it was pretty friggin minor. As far as anyone can determine, no one died, got cancer from, or had even a shortened lifespan from the TMI-2 reactor incident. These days, you can walk through the area where the TMI-2 reactor was located without any special gear. Folks apparently are still under the belief that was TMI-2 reactor incident was a mini Chernobyl, or even had the potential to become a mini Chernobyl. I lived literally within walking distance of TMI for 10 years and I was never worried. Seems the less a person actually knows about nuclear power, the more opposed to it they are. Everyone within spitting distance of TMI loved it, because the power was so cheap, it kept taxes low and it was significantly more safe than the coal plant down the river.
Nuclear power is the safest, cheapest and cleanest form of energy production we have or will have until fusion comes economically viable. Gods, if folks actually knew how much thorium-232 and uranium-238 is cranked out from burning coal, they'd be begging for more nuke plants.
I don't understand why people attack solar panels so much, really I don't. I mean, I understand the leftists want to shove them down your throat, but really - as Gewehr98 has pointed out, they're excellent for a private person using them to power his house.
Solar panels are excellent at a reducing your home's monthly power bill. Assuming you put in enough panels, orient them correctly, etc etc. They're good for remote locations that are not economical to wire with power as well. Solar is excellent for small applications. It's too expensive and non-continuous for wide spread use. Plus lots of areas just flat out don't have the open land.
Their primary problem is they just don't scale. I heard of a new solar array out in the desert. 140 acres to produce 15 MW. Peak. No power at night, very little at morning and evening. My state alone has 9 reactors generating 9,229 MW. Continuous. Replacing them with solar would require 86,137 acres. Minimum, just to cover peak. And that's assuming we're in a desert, which we are not. All 9 of those reactors require slightly less than 140 acres, including containment, support and maintenance structures.
