France begs to differ. We basically replace fossil fuel with nuclear here (we only have small peaker gas plants, our baseload is all nuclear and some of our variable load is hydro) and there is no particular scale problem, no accidents (incidents yes, but they don't become accidents, the system works), a few pools of waste but whatever, no trouble to procure the fuel...
Even France is having serious issues both currently and in the future. There is considerable national pride involved, so the picture being painted is often more rosy than it is. Nuclear power in France and elsewhere had a leg up in terms of brain share and political will due to the importance of nuclear weapons, it was patriotic to be for nuclear things but that factor has vanished since the end of the cold war. This is also a factor France has a leg up on Germany who was not allowed to have nuclear weapons due to WWII. Without nuclear weapons programs, nuclear power would probably not have had the same importance.
Even when trying to come to a conclusion if nuclear power is worthwhile, one has to realize how much more complex even the equation is. It takes so much more qualified engineers, a much more specialized and expensive supply chain, and then there are huge uncertainty factors with unintentional accidents and malicious interference. Waste storage is a recurring headache and not globally solved. All of this MIGHT be manageable for a first-world democratic country like France, but I really don't like to see China scaling up their nuclear industry, nor would I want to see much of the rest of the world to replace their fossil fuels by those headaches.
The fuel is an interesting point - I gather it comes from former French colonies, mostly. Do you know if this is true? And if so, what are the conditions of the workers and the impact on the economies of countries where the extraction happens?
