My philosophy on alternative energy is that every watt created that way is a watt that doesn't have to come from burning something.

In some parts of the U.S., alternative energy is a damn good alternative. In the Southwest, where the sun shines most of the time, solar power is at its peak when energy use in the hot weather is also at its peak. Some coastal cities might be ideal for wind or tidal generators.

The problem is when someone says we can turn off the coal and oil and switch to alternative energy now, or even in the next twenty years. We can't. Even if we started building nuclear plants like crazy, we couldn't stop burning coal, oil, or natural gas for a long time.

Nuclear power turns out huge amounts of energy and unlike other power plants, its waste doesn't pour into the atmosphere and rivers, but is gathered up in small cannisters.

The problem with nuclear waste is that too many people are stuck on "store it safely for thousands of years." That's crap. Reprocess the waste to recover more energy and concentrate it, glassify it if you want, then re-activate a few old military bases in Nevada or something and it in big underground concrete bunkers with sensors, guards, and cameras. You could put an amazing amount of waste in places like this.

Safe? Why not? We store working hydrogen bombs and nuclear missiles this way. It would require a tiny fraction of the military budget, or funds could be transferred from DOE to support it.

Don't bury the stuff out of sight. Keep an eye on it. Monitor it for problems and leaks. Someday we might have uses for it, or a better way to neutralize it.