Nuclear going global

Daily Grist reports that GW is collaborating with the G8 on a "global energy security" plan that'll power our world with nuclear, and hand over the associated waste to Russia (a country that is not new to "disposing" of the stuff for themselves and their nuclear waste generating neighbors.) Of course environmentalists are shouting out their usual protests over the whole waste issue. According to The Washington Post those darned environmentalists "have denounced Russia's plans to transform itself into the world's nuclear dump."

This is all well and good - after all, how much more secure can you get in energy production than nuclear? It's clean (if you ignore the radioactive waste issue). Plants are cheap to operate once they're up and running (we'll ignore the high, often subsidized construction costs). They don't use fossil fuels (not directly anyway). It creates (the illusion of) jobs. It's a form of energy which steers clear of politics (because nuclear power and nuclear weapons aren't related in any way at all.)

Sure, nuclear can be a viable part of our energy future, and may in fact be necessary, but I fear that heavy reliance on nuclear power will effectively squash any R&D going to other forms of power generation - renewables or otherwise (otherwise meaning coal gasefication and the ever elusive hydrogen).