Yet the current reactors deal with their waste.. Along with the many other industrial processes that create toxic byproducts that can't reasonably be dealt with, so they store it.
20-30 tonnes of waste per year that you know exactly where it is, compared to billions of tons of waste that you dump into the atmosphere and lose control over.
Plus there are many ways to build reactors, ways that EDIT, change that to ways that make it harder to get weapons grade materials. There are also reactors being developed that would re-burn the waste materials currently out there into far less radioactive materials that would need far shorter storage life spans.
Every type of energy supply is a problem, nuclear poses a different set of problems but since you know exactly where the waste is, right off the bat it's easier to manage.
It'd be much nicer if solar (and other solar derivatives like wind and hydro) was ready to take over as the primary source of energy, but we're a looooong long way from that, so nuclear is a viable stepping stone in my opinion.
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Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
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