This is all true, but is not sufficient to rationalize building two reactor facilities near the ocean on top of an active fault line that will likely sustain a major earthquake in the next 3” years. Californians do not want an repeat of Fukushima. These facilities never should have been built and CPUC made the right call to shut these down. Any new nuclear facilities should be located in rural areas with little seismic activity.

Today there are about 450 nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries. While California has chosen to have no zero emission nuclear power capacity, worldwide is increasing steadily its nuclear power generating capacity with more than 50 reactors currently under construction. China has launched the most aggressive nuclear program on the planet, with plans to add about 150 new nuclear reactors to its fleet, and about 300 more are proposed.

Like the space program, the staggering upfront price tag for the reactors themselves, would necessitate significant need for government involvement to further research the various technologies into safe sources that can provide the scale of energy we demand at prices we can afford. Our future prosperity depends on cheap abundant reliable supplies of electricity. Nuclear’s power-density advantages simply cannot be denied.