Things like wind and solar power are clearly preferable to nuclear power, which doesn't produce radioactive waste. Also, if a wind turbine fails, it falls on some cows. If a nuclear power plant fails, well...
The catch is neither wind nor solar are particularly reliable for putting out at their full capacity around the clock. Until tech for storage batteries improves this limitation will leave us in need of a more reliable source of baseload power. So far as I can tell, coal and nuclear are the only two energy options of that nature ready to go right now at a reasonable cost and - because I consider the whole "clean coal" pitch as little more than a PR campaign by the producers of fossil fuels to help them keep selling what they already make - nuclear stands out to me as the better choice. Provided we can someday start building reactors that run on thorium, the long-standing taboo about safety surrounding these power stations can be done away with and this form of energy could well become the mainstay of modern society - with fuel enough in the ground to last us for so long as to make current coal and oil reserves look insignificant. When Greens rally against nuclear power I cannot easily take much of their outlook on energy policy seriously anymore.
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