What viable alternatives exist for fission based nuclear power?

Decommissioning at nuclear sites which have experienced a serious accident are the most expensive and time-consuming. In the U.S. in 2011, there are 13 reactors that had permanently shut down and are in some phase of decommissioning. 202 With Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station having completed the process in 2007, after ceasing commercial electricity production in 1992.

The majority of the 15 years, was used to allow the station to naturally cool-down on its own, which makes the manual disassembly process both safer and cheaper. The nuclear power debate concerns the controversy293096 which has surrounded the deployment and use of nuclear fission reactors to generate electricity from nuclear fuel for civilian purposes. The debate about nuclear power peaked during the 1970s and 1980s, when it "reached an intensity unprecedented in the history of technology controversies", in some countries.

Proponents of nuclear energy contend that nuclear power is a sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions and increases energy security by decreasing dependence on imported energy sources. 31 Proponents claim that nuclear power produces virtually no conventional air pollution, such as greenhouse gases and smog, in contrast to the chief viable alternative of fossil fuel. 204 Nuclear power can produce base-load power unlike many renewables which are intermittent energy sources lacking large-scale and cheap ways of storing energy.

King Hubbert saw oil as a resource that would run out, and proposed nuclear energy as a replacement energy source. 206 Proponents claim that the risks of storing waste are small and can be further reduced by using the latest technology in newer reactors, and the operational safety record in the Western world is excellent when compared to the other major kinds of power plants. Opponents believe that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment.

323334 These threats include the problems of processing, transport and storage of radioactive nuclear waste, the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation and terrorism, as well as health risks and environmental damage from uranium mining. 208209 They also contend that reactors themselves are enormously complex machines where many things can and do go wrong; and there have been serious nuclear accidents. 210211 Critics do not believe that the risks of using nuclear fission as a power source can be fully offset through the development of new technology.

They also argue that when all the energy-intensive stages of the nuclear fuel chain are considered, from uranium mining to nuclear decommissioning, nuclear power is neither a low-carbon nor an economical electricity source. Arguments of economics and safety are used by both sides of the debate. As of 2013, the World Nuclear Association has said "There is unprecedented interest in renewable energy, particularly solar and wind energy, which provide electricity without giving rise to any carbon dioxide emission.

Harnessing these for electricity depends on the cost and efficiency of the technology, which is constantly improving, thus reducing costs per peak kilowatt". Renewable electricity production, from sources such as wind power and solar power, is sometimes criticized for being intermittent or variable. 216217 However, the International Energy Agency concluded that deployment of renewable technologies (RETs), when it increases the diversity of electricity sources, contributes to the flexibility of the system.

However, the report also concluded (p.