Without nuclear power the world is toast.
The supposed energy "transition" from natural gas to some renewable energy utopia is a lie, a lie mostly benefiting the natural gas industry.
There are eight billion people on this planet dependent on high density energy resources for the basic necessities of life. Like it or not, nuclear energy is the only energy resource capable of displacing fossil fuels entirely.
By my own reckoning a world economy powered entirely by renewable energy can't support eight billion people.
If we don't quit fossil fuels billions of people are going to suffer and die young.
I we keep pretending renewable energy is going to save the world then billions of people are going to suffer and die young because it can't.
There used to be a lot of enthusiastic speculations about how well renewable energy schemes would work, about energy storage, smart grids, synergies, etc., but we no longer have to speculate about that. Gigawatt scale renewable energy projects and energy storage schemes have been built in places like California. The real world results are disappointing. It became very clear, for example, that the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant could not be shut down without building an equivalent gas power plant. Solar and wind power are entirely dependent on fossil fuels for their economic viability, especially natural gas, and there are no magical energy storage schemes on the horizon that will solve this problem.
I used to be a radical anti-nuclear activist. I still consider myself a radical environmentalist with a respectable university degree directly related to that. I can do the math. Politically, if Obama and Biden are pitching a baseball game, I'm way out in left field. But my politics are always practical. I've never voted for a Republican or a third party "spoiler" candidate. I'm seeking results, I'm not interested in political posturing. The first President I campaigned for was Jimmy Carter, so I've been around a while.
I don't remember calling anti-nuclear activism a "cult" here, as NNadir has, but I have said some meaner stuff.
In this modern world scientific literacy and numeracy are important. We can't make important energy policy based upon our feelings. Nature doesn't care about our feelings. There's no bargaining with Nature, just hard numbers.
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