As everyone is praising Germany with good weather and temporarily increased use of renewables, the same people rarely notice that France *also* has renewable and combined with nuclear their energy sectors is extremely low-carbon (30 gCO2eq/kWh) - Germany never goes below 150.
@kravietz
such calculation often omit the externalized costs of nuclear energy. A study by the French government concluded that a Fukushima style disaster would cost them €430bn, which is more than plant operators and insurance companies can pay, meaning the state will have to cover it.
https://fr.reuters.com/article/topNews/idFRPAE91601Q20130207
The ecological/social/health impacts of uranium mining and the somewhat unsolved problem of waste disposal have to be considered as well.
http://www.afrol.com/articles/36725
Regarding mining, you are certainly aware that any modern renewable energy technology (solar panels, wind turbines, batteries) requires vast amounts of rare earth metals which are... mined. And since they co-exist with radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium, radium, they result in radioactive mining waste too.
@kravietz solar panels are made of silicon, the second most common element in the earth's crust.
As for rare earths, it's not like we wouldn't need them if we built more nuclear plants instead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_element#Uses
You need rare-earth metals for any modern engineering today, starting from computers and mobile phones. This is engineering. And engineering is sometimes dirty, we just need to make sure it's only as dirty as necessary.
The problem is that Greens create a black-and-white utopia where any amount of radioactivity is totally deadly and solar panels are totally clean and nice.
And everyone is very surprised to find out that oh, solar panels are also "made with dirt"!
@kravietz i don't see how that supports your original argument