Nuclear waste (used fuel) is safely managed around the world today. For it to hurt you, you would have to somehow find your way through several layers of security fences, evading guards, break into a metre thick concrete cask to expose yourself to radiation otherwise shielded within. That’s why nuclear waste has never hurt anyone. It’s reasonable to assume it won’t hurt anyone in the future either. Everything we do produces waste streams; some toxic, some radioactive, some relatively harmless. Nuclear is pretty unique in that it is the only industry which controls and contains ALL its wastes from getting into air, water and the biosphere. Fossil fuels get to spew their wastes into the sky, into your lungs. That includes chemicals like mercury and cadmium, that are toxic FOREVER, unlike spent fuel, whose radioactivity gradually fades. Most pressing, is that fossil fuels release huge amounts of carbon dioxide waste that is cooking our planet. Even solar and wind produce toxic waste streams. I’m not saying that means that we shouldn’t use solar and wind, I’m just saying that nothing is perfect. Everything has benefits and drawbacks. Nuclear’s benefits in providing clean, reliable and low-carbon power outweigh its drawbacks. Jeff Gibbs missed that.

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