For better or for worse, the accident that happened at this American nuclear power plant changed the country’s opinion about how safe this type of energy generation was. Thanks to TMI (before it became the abbreviation for Too Much Information), the US hasn’t ordered a new nuclear power plant in 40 years. What probably helped was a little movie released around the same time called The China Syndrome. The film’s disaster scenario was nothing compared to what could’ve happened in real life but you could count on the ways a corporation would lie in both realms.
Personally, I’m glad the majority of Americans have sided against nuclear energy. Chernobyl and Fukushima have continued to drive the point home in how dangerous fission really is. Apologists such as a former friend would point toward Soviet neglect and the Japanese having bad luck by showing how much success the French have. I wouldn’t exactly hold up the French as paragons given the more recent cracks in their society bubbling up via the Yellow Vest movement, a dispshit president and how all their tax cheats suddenly have hundreds of millions of Euros to rebuild Notre Dame. The biggest problem is radioactive waste and when you live in a crippled democracy/bustling oligarchy, NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) remains a powerful force in resolving something you can’t get rid of for centuries.
The economic argument has continually proven to be bullshit too. Not one nuclear power plant has been completed on scheduled nor on budget so how much each megawatt of electricity produced costs borders on ridiculous. Burning hundred-dollar bills to run a turbine would be cheaper. Even China has lost its taste for this despite bringing a fourth-generation plant online.
Critics may mock wind and solar power but they seem rather speechless when you point out their lack of radioactive fallout. Back when I was a precinct delegate in 2008, I argued against any pro-nuclear power language by letting everyone know that their homeowner’s insurance has a loophole not covering fallout. If greedy insurance companies won’t protect you against something with “impossible” odds, is it truly safe? Not a chance in hell.