Nuclear fission is definitely a very viable power source. The odds of any serious problems are truly minuscule, contrary to what you might have heard from the anti nuclear crowd. The problem that many people mention when it comes to nuclear power is dealing with the waste. The reason most of these people think the nuclear waste is so bad is due to a lack of education. The waste products from a fission reactor can be reused to power what is called a fast breeder reactor, which operates on plutonium, the most dangerous result of a fission reactor. At this time only France and Japan have fast breeder reactors. This is simply due to a lack of money and political will in other countries, and a lack of education by the people who don't want to consider nuclear power. Fission reactors, as long as they are managed responsibly, are safe and effective. Reprocessing the waste can be very beneficial to us all as more power can be generated, and a safer by product produced. Unfortunately, in our day and age, there are many dangerous people who would love to get control of some of this plutonium, so it would require very good security as well as proper management, and we seem to lack both at this time.