I saw the Ted talk. Thanks. However they were many technical mistakes, and some valid points. As a member of the US Navy Nuclear Power Program trust me that 1. Nuclear Power is cost effective and more should be funded but the relatively small mass of waste is extremely dangerous and must be carefully isolated from water supplies. The radiation materials, if ingested, need only micrograms to kill you. Can it be safe? Yes but it does require $ and care. The waste from thorium reactors is safer. 2. I am also an electrical engineer. The statement that nuclear power plants cannot quickly adjust to changing loads is not correct, they are faster then fossil fuel electric power. On to wind and solar and battery. Most new sales for wind and solar are adding very large batteries. In Australia Tesla provided a $50,000,000 battery installation that had a one year pay back in cost saving buying when cheap, selling when expensive. Solar and wind internal rates of return increase when you add large scale batteries. Also wind and solar don’t “produce energy that stress the grid in times of low demand, the controls just shut down the excess power generation or use batteries to store it for later use. Solar and wind can be important and cheaper forms of electric power. As to climate change, I they help but yes are not the total solution. I think there were statements about the total land required for solar. It is small compared to the total land mass of the earth. But ok, if you are worried about that just install solar panels on every roof top. Worried about the re cycling cost and potential heavy metals? Check out coal fire waste of coal ash. Massive heavy metals stored in poorly maintained ponds near rivers. A disaster waiting to happen on a scale that makes solar waste look environmentally friendly. Also coal waste makes nuclear waste a more attractive issue.
In summary wind solar and batteries are growing at 50% per year because they are cheaper then coal or gas and will continue to grow. Nuclear is cost effective but cursed with in accurate information from folks who don’t do much checking.
For climate and for the environment the best we can do is make progress. The engineering can continuously improve products for what folks value.