Nuclear power plants are insanely complex. It’s just a massive water boiler. The problem is that all that steam and water is radioactive. So you have to design

Nuclear power plants are insanely complex. It’s just a massive water boiler. The problem is that all that steam and water is radioactive. So you have to design in all these reinforcements to ensure that the steam and liquids do not leak out. It’s easy to say that your design is airtight, but the reality is far different, with the laws of entropy taking over after decades of operation. This is when your parts starts to fail. Seals starts to leak. Things just wear out and fall apart. This is why the thing is so complex. Then, you have to deal with the radioactive waste byproduct which lasts for 10,000+ years. How do you even deal with this, when no government in human history has lasted longer than a few hundred years. As much as nuclear is a necessary evil to maintain baseload, since solar and wind doesn’t always function, I think we need a new energy paradigm. I’m thinking we need to go with solar space power generation, and beam the energy down via microwave or laser. Maybe laser is a good candidate. Beam the laser down, and collect it with photovoltaics. And the laser can run 24/7, even at night. Asking a friend: Maybe someone can run the efficiency numbers on this. But even if it’s less efficient than nuclear, this is probably far safer than nuclear ever will be.