Since 1979, when I first joined the Natural Resources Defense Council, I have been involved with nuclear power issues touching on all aspects of the technology’s deployment in the United States. Thirty years ago, I served on a National Academy of Sciences panel convened to address the nuclear industry’s future, and in 2016 I helped negotiate the agreement that extended the lifetime of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to ensure time for zero-carbon replacement. Nuclear power is certainly better than fossil generation, avoiding its carbon and particulate pollution (although no one should ignore the public health and environmental concerns associated with the nuclear fuel cycle’s waste disposal, mining, and weapons proliferation issues). But those aren’t our only choices, and Diablo Canyon is an instructive case study.