http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=167801#167806Especially click through the the links I included in the linked post.
It's true that I'm not "against" nuclear power in the way some here are. By the same token I'm not "against" wind or solar either. I merely think that none of them will provide a solution to this mess. But as the links above show, I have said explicitly that nuclear power will not be part of the solution, if indeed any solution can be found.
I have different reasons for thinking that about each power source. For nuclear my reasons include the problems of public acceptance, capital requirements and lead time, along with a minor concern about maintaining reactor integrity during a widespread social collapse. I don't think that nuclear power is a terribly dangerous technology, but I do think it's a terribly dumb one. My objections to wind and solar have more to do with my perceptions of the short time remaining before widespread socioeconomic destabilization sets in, the scalability of the sources within that time frame, and the competition for capital dollars during a depression that also features low oil prices.
It's true that I have been more harshly critical in wind/solar threads than in nuclear ones. The reason is that there are plenty of nuclear nay-sayers here to carry that ball -- the negative side of side of the issue is very well represented. As a result I restrict my comments to the reasons I don't think it will happen, and tend to be more even-voiced about it. Wind and solar power, on the other hand, tend to be treated as sacred cows on this board, so my criticism has to a little more forthright in order to penetrate the cloud of self-congratulatory fog that surrounds the topic.
I think that we should continue with wind and solar build-out even though it won't save us. Every little bit will help, and decentralized technologies are certainly more resilient than centralized ones. Having more wind and solar electricity available will make some peoples' lives more comfortable during the coming troubles, and I've got nothing against that.
I don't think we should continue with the nuclear build-out because it's a stupid idea in the current economic/ecological/social climate. However, I don't think any of them can "save us" -- including nuclear power -- and I've said so.