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The climate crisis has inspired new hope in nuclear energy. Its advocates claim we already have the technology of the future, ready to be perfected and deployed. But as M. V. Ramana argues in this urgent and lucid book, such thinking is not only naïve but dangerous. Beyond the horrific risk of severe accidents and the intractable problem of waste disposal, nuclear energy fails the two key tests for any climate solution: cost and time. More expensive than wind and solar, it is also far slower to bring online. A typical plant takes a decade to build; permitting and financing often add another. These are years we do not have. Nuclear Is Not the Solution dismantles the myth of cheap, clean atomic energy and exposes the vested interests that seek to profit from the technology while offloading its costs and risks onto the public.
The climate crisis has inspired new hope in nuclear energy. Its advocates claim we already have the technology of the future, ready to be perfected and deployed. But as M. V. Ramana argues in this urgent and lucid book, such thinking is not only naïve but dangerous. Beyond the horrific risk of severe accidents and the intractable problem of waste disposal, nuclear energy fails the two key tests for any climate solution: cost and time. More expensive than wind and solar, it is also far slower to bring online. A typical plant takes a decade to build; permitting and financing often add another. These are years we do not have. Nuclear Is Not the Solution dismantles the myth of cheap, clean atomic energy and exposes the vested interests that seek to profit from the technology while offloading its costs and risks onto the public.