nuclear power, a viable option?

I am a student reporter looking for opinions from people about nuclear power. I think that it is a viable option these days as it has gotten a lot safer and would certainly alleviate many of the international and global problems we have with our dependence on oil and the way we keep burning coal and putting it into the atmosphere. What does anyone out there think? Are there some who concur out there? Are there any major side effects to the environment I am missing here? Thanks

nuclear energy is viable.

2 issues here. one is nuclear waste disposal. you run into the NIMBY factor. also, there is reactor technology where this stuff can recycled for reuse. problem is, there is no reactor built with this tech in U.S. Canda has one that does this or so I'm told.

the other is excessive regulation. there is a lot of regulations that drive up the cost of building a nuclear reactor which was the reason why no new ones have been built in recent years.

Nuclear waste is a huge problem.

I mean, what the heck do you do with tons and tons of radioactive waste? Bury it somewhere? That's just like sweeping the dust under the carpet - you'll have to deal with it some time, and in a much more extreme circumstance. Send it into space? Way too expensive, and who knows what it'll screw up there.

There was a story just recently about some guys who were camping in Russia. They came across some warm barrels, and decided to use them to keep warm. Well, it turns out that it was some radioactive waste from the Soviet Union. They ended up getting terrible radioactive burns, and died. So who knows what the stuff could do to plants and animals living around it?

Just my two cents.

hello friend!

not only the waste disposal, there is an environmental factor.if the region where the reactor has been located is attacked by an earthquake, it causes all the radiation out.... i'm told that now a days, some countries r not disposing their wastes to get escaped from the cost and they r just packing the waste in a container and they dip that in sea depths..though they say that they r using protective methods like concrete shields,like how many years that can with stand?may b at some point the containers may break up contaminating all the water with radiation.. ofcourse it's sure that it outputs no env-harm gasses,if it isn't used with proper care,tehre will b a lot of leakage.... however, i personally support the use of nuclear technology for the production of electricity.. for that also we have to see that the situation doesn't become at some point of time like whae we have with the coal(limited sourse)i mean, the sourse is not to b wasted with the feeling that it's available