"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...

Who has paid for the disposal of all that nuclear waste generated by the
power plants

how about having the users of the power plants pay for that?


Not a bad idea, so long as those users are informed of that issue beforehand
and have a choice as to whether to "use" power from that plant or not. The
problem with must "regulated monopoly" utilities is that they are guaranteed
a certain ROI and this does not factor in a lot of externalities.

The initial promise of nuclear power was that it would be so cheap there
would be no need for meters. Unfortunately it turned out to be much more
complex than that and the designs went astray, with bigger and bigger single
reactor generators. There are other technologies that promise less
difficult to deal with waste and better resistance to thermal runaway but
they haven't yet gained wide usage. I still believe in the idea of nuclear
power, but somewhat differently executed than the present systems.

What I don't like is the immunity from damage claims the power companies
have in the case of radioactive release enough to destroy habitability. I
have zero control of whether the local company has a thermal fission turbine
a few miles away from me yet they and my homeowner's insurance company won't
cover me if something goes wrong. I know I can evacuate my family and
myself even under the worse of scenarios, in a non-panic way, but my bank
will still want mortgage payments even though my home might be worth zilch.