Both John McCain and Barack Obama must be taking contributions from the nuclear power industry. McCain, especially, with his proposal to build 45 new reactors by 2030 and 100 by 2050, has to be in their pocket. Nuclear power may be the worst idea humans ever had. Mining radioactive uranium pollutes land and water. No one wants either the uranium nor the radioactive spent fuel in their state or passing through their state. We have no way of isolating this spent fuel for the thousands of years needed for the longest of its radioactive half-lives. In other words, through the entire cycle, nuclear power is dangerous, not even counting its vulnerability to attack or its connection to nuclear bombs.
Furthermore, it takes a decade to bring a new plant on line and banks won’t finance nuclear plants unless taxpayers assume all the financial risks. Instead, we could use that money to pay for increased energy efficiency of all kinds and to invest in the power grid needed to deliver wind and solar power across the nation. The benefits could be realized quickly, with none of the hazards involved in both dirty coal and dirty nukes.