Nuclear energy gets the worst PR campaign in scientific history. Someone calls uranium "magic rocks that boil water" and they're technically correct—that's literally what nuclear power plants do. We split atoms to... heat water. Revolutionary!
But one meltdown and suddenly everyone's treating nuclear energy like it killed their childhood pet. Meanwhile, fossil fuels are actively cooking the entire planet and we're like "but what about Chernobyl though?"
The comparison to prehistoric humans abandoning fire after one accident is painfully accurate. Thirty years teaching thermodynamics and I've never seen a better analogy for our irrational energy policy. Nuclear power: it's just spicy steam.