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I'm a mechanical engineer working on the operations side of a large power plant. I've worked in a few different types of plants but ultimately landed in a big Co-Generation plant. Knowing what I do, the actual arguments against nuclear are pretty flimsy. It's just better in almost every way especially compared to solid fuel. I strongly believe that there is a place for every method of generating we currently use (excluding coal for the most part). Main generating electricity can and should come from nuclear on the most wide scale with hydro, solar and wind being a large chunk where geographically most viable. While nat gas and liquid fuel should mostly be used in peaker plants and large scale essential buildings like hospitals. I hope to work in a nuclear plant eventually and have positioned myself to be qualified to do so.
5 to 15 years ago, I would have agreed with you. Now, I think we need some small number of breeder reactors to supply us with medical isotopes, etc., but I don't see nuclear as financially viable anymore, whatever the reason. Hydro, solar, wind, and battery can cover our needs at this point, or once we phase out our existing non-renewable and nuclear plants. And every year tips things further in favor of non-nuclear, simply because of the construction times. We also have some very cheap, long-lived battery technologies coming online, which will help with load balancing.
I'd still rather have more nuclear plants than using prime cropland for ethanol fuel production.
Awesome, I wish you the best, we need more people to get involved in nuclear power, myself included. Opponents point to older designs and point at the Chernobyl or Three Mile Island and think that can happen at any moment, which they can't. I think we have an obligation to dispel that fear because the designs we build today are better.