The same way our generation was left a carbon legacy all I see is the selfish thinking of the baby boomer generation wanting cheap electricity until they die and forcing the costs onto the X, Y generation and those that come after that. These costs will be realized by these generations in terms of infrastructure to handle all of the problems that have been offset to be dealt with "sometime in the future".
This "Not in My Generation" thinking has to end. In these years now we have the energy and expertise to create technological solutions however the entrenched status quo has the same capacity to mold opinions into complacency as it does for solving these problems permanently. Molding opinions though, is much cheaper.
Nuclear and carbon capture in their current forms are only stopgap measure to a more permanent solutions. Carbon capture looks like a dead technology that will only serve to delay facing the issue of carbons a means to just keep using coal.
Nuclear looks more promising, but requires a more serious attitude to deal with the sobering danger the impact of its failures present. Infrastructure to deal with spent fuel containment, reactor decommissioning, reactor design, enrichment and, especially, infrastructure to move the existing fuel all have to be dealt with if we are to have any realistic energy return from Nuclear. These problems become more intense as the energetic costs to produce uranium continue to rise due to the transitions from processing soft ores (like sandstone) to hard ores (like granite) as a source material for extracting uranium. The energetic costs of seawater production is also very high with current technology. And before you say breeder reactors or thorium reactors, they still require the above infrastructure. Whilst a thorium fuel cycle, from my understanding, will trade Plutonium 239 for Thallium 238 as a spent fuel product, so we have 2 problems instead of one.
Creating an alternative energy production infrastructure based on Solar, Wind, Wave and geothermal, independent of existing infrastructure, is a smart choice as it also allows us time to create a new technological base that produces less externalities. Doing so would also allow a more planned approach to Nuclear power that improves the development of that technological infrastructure base as it is proven that solar thermal can do base load and that wind scale quite well.
What this means is that OUR generation deals with the transition of the technological bases in a more controlled manner while the costs of doing so can be handled for lower cost. It will never be perfect and mistakes will be made however, if we don't learn from the past mistakes and invest in high externality power infrastructure (like coal and nuclear in its current form) while we have a functioning infrastructure then we will be leaving a greater set of problems for humanity to deal with in the future.
None of this though, is a concern that the current establishment cares about.
