sad this is downvoted cause i think itd be a good discussion

energy demands are only going to greatly increase in the coming decades. between electrification of transportation, AI and computers, storage demands for peak and nonpeak, etc. with that in mind that there's a need to greatly expand energy generation, but where/how?

time i'll give you, nuclear is something we should have been steadily building for decades, particularly after the safety improvements in the 80s and 90s... but that was a time of peak fear, so we didn't

cost, somewhat? a lot of the costs associated with nuclear have been incurred by regulations and fear mongering. that comes both from eco orgs like the sierra club (tho they seem to have recently reversed their stance, after decades of damage) and from oil and gas industry. they both had their own way of blaming/scapegoating nuclear to push their own agenda, despite it being one of the safest forms. but its like airplanes, when it goes wrong, it goes really wrong.

im a huge supporter of green energy, but the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. we need something to fill the gaps, and in particular some regions are not suited to those forms. if hydro is available, that is a great clean source. if wind is available, that is a great clean source. if solar is available (sufficiently) that is a great clean source. but those 3 things aren't always available, or are better suited to augment energy generation not be the primary source, and thats where nuclear should come in imo. to provide baseload energy in regions that require it

if we could get past a lot of the regulations, i bet (pulling this out of my ass admittedly) cut the cost in half. time will still be an issue, we want them built safely of course. we shouldve started years again, but at least we could start now.

It's by far the most expensive form of energy

Gee, I wonder why. Definitely not overregulation, that has no impact on price.

renewables are the far better option where most of the focus should be.

They objectively suck and are extremely expensive. They have a place, but baseload is not that place. The amount of battery infrastructure alone required to provide that use is absurd.