Nuclear renaissance was just a fairy tale

The promise of cheap, low-carbon power – with 31 new reactors in the US – was based on rhetoric and obedience. Anyone who doubts that should read the new status report on the industry

The sun sets on the cooling towers of a nuclear power station in Limerick, Pennsylvania.

Nuclear power requires obedience, not transparency. The gap between nuclear rhetoric and nuclear reality has been a fundamental impediment to wise energy policy decisions for half a century now.
For various reasons, in many nations the nuclear industry cannot tell the truth about its progress, its promise or its perils. Its backers in government and in academia do no better.
Rhetorical excess from opponents of nuclear power contributes to the fog, but proponents have by far the heavier artillery. In the US, during the rise and fall of the bubble formerly known as "the nuclear renaissance", many of the proponents' tools have been on full display.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/11/nuclear-renaissance-power-myth-us