I agree that this is something that EVs and batteries could replace, but if your baseload is coming from oil, all you've done is transfer the combustion to a mo

I agree that this is something that EVs and batteries could replace, but if your baseload is coming from oil, all you've done is transfer the combustion to a more efficient central site and then sent the power through the grid. Regarding base load, my suspicion is that SMRs inherently accommodate transients better because leakage becomes a bigger factor and starts to compete with poisoning effectively, so maybe you get more bang for your buck out of influencing the moderator. Regardless, even if it's only ever good for base load, that's a lot of ground nuclear could still cover in the US. Finally, the cost of nuclear comes mostly from the aggressive safety standards. There's space to fix some of that (enormous cost to the fact that radiation workers typically experience less exposure than aircrews) and also space to acknowledge that we're lowballing standards in fossil fuels, with pipeline leaks and ransomware compromise being easy examples. That's before you talk about the pollution released by fossil fuels, including the radioactive contamination released by mining and burning coal.