Nuclear power plants have to be next to a large body of water because they tend to overheat if something goes wrong. If they do overheat, they have to suck in l

Nuclear power plants have to be next to a large body of water because they tend to overheat if something goes wrong. If they do overheat, they have to suck in large volumes of water very quickly to cool themselves down in order to avoid a runaway reaction. This of course adds another danger to nuclear plants -- flooding. Because the plant is next to a large body of water, there is always danger of the water going up and flooding the pumps, which usually break down and fail to pump water. Then ironically the plant will overheat for lack of cooling while being flooded. This is what happened to Fukushima. This is what would have happened in Missouri just several months after Fukushima, but we got lucky then -- the plant flooded and the pumps failed but by pure luck the plant was shut off for refueling when the flood happened. [1] Most people do not realize how close the USA was to having its own Fukushima. Anyways the point of this rant is that there really isn't much room for compromise. Nuclear power is just not safe, and it is really stupid in the presence of ever more affordable renewables. [1] https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0627/Missouri-River-soaks-Nebraska-nuclear-plant-but-it-s-no-Fukushima https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0627/Missouri-River-soaks...