Is nuclear the only way forward?
Well, no!
We have copious NG, and Methane is 75% hydrogen, as is scrubbed biogas.
Even so, passing methane through a catalyst, knocks one or two hydrogen atoms out of the molecule matrix, thereby creating petrol replacing methanol!
CNG, with a few plumbing modifications, will run any conventional petrol or diesel engine.
Including things like inboard electrolysis, that uses spare alternator capacity and regenerative braking, to produce Hydrogen and Oxygen, both of which can be fed into either end of the air intake to dramatically improve economy and range.
The addition of a cobalt catalyst to the water, quite literally doubles the gas production, for the same power input! [And interesting connotations for fuel cell powered vehicles!]
Similarly, water injected directly into the combustion chamber, with every sixth power stroke, negates the need for an energy sapping radiator and circulation pumps!
Moreover, the steam created by this method, provides some high torque motive power, all while adding quite significantly to the range and economy.
After that, I feel that hydrogen will play a vital role as fuel in the future.
And will likely be made utilising the much less expensive, catalyst assisted, water molecule cracking method.
We have boundless sea water and sunshine, both of which could be deployed to produce very price competitive compressed/storable endlessly sustainable hydrogen fuel.
All that's currently missing is the national gas grid, that could carry NG, scrubbed biogas, or hydrogen.
Nonetheless, we could use it to power very fast trains, with hydrogen powered ceramic cells, placed at convenient sites track-side or carried on board, with a few towed tanks of compressed fuel.
We are currently researching ways to lock in a few carbon atoms, with hydrogen, to create a hydrocarbon molecule, thereby creating an endlessly sustainable transportable/storable liquid fuel!
Rhrosty.

How much of the objection to nuclear power is knee-jerk? I know mine was. And then along came climate change.
Has anyone else been following the weather reports coming out of Beijing over the last few days? Our export of coal to China and elsewhere makes us culpable in much of today's atmospheric pollution. Whether or not that pollution contributes directly to a changing climate becomes secondary when the air we breathe goes bad. And our fingerprints are all over that bad air.
Isn't it time we started a serious debate on how much harm our export-driven dollar-earning coal industry is inflicting on the world.

The Chinese are putting together a thorium powered plant, as is India.
Thorium is virtually non toxic, [if handled with care.]

Best OLO article in years. Thank you John.

Of course the anti any & every thing mob surface like mosquito larvae. Must be dreadful living in continual fear of a myth.

Hay Rhrosty, how about a little bet mate, although at the rate we keep finding hydrocarbons it might have to be our grandkids that actually collect.

Five bucks says we are powering the next generation of transport with nuclear power, not fuel cells. If you want to use hydrogen, you might as well burn it.

What a great thought a nuclear powered car is. Chuck a pebble of uranium into the thing on the production line, then run it until the wheels fall off.

The only problem is by then they will have made the things auto controlled, & far too safe. We will have to come up with a whole new range of dangerous sports, [blindfolded mountain climbing, round world hot air balloon racing anyone], to make life interesting again.

No, nuclear is not the only way forward.
We could collect and digest all our current biological waste and produce energy from it, rather than put energy into it, to pump it as treated effluent, wastefully out to sea. Where it does no end of harm, to the very poorly understood marine environment!
All our high-rise buildings, villages and individual suburbs, can have all their independent power needs supplied onsite by the very waste they create! Adding in food scraps and wastage, [around 50%], produces a saleable energy surplus. Methane powered ceramic fuel cells, with a world beating 60% energy coefficient, produce endless free hot water, as a by product.
The digesters produce methane, a thoroughly sanitised phosphate and nitrate loaded, high carbon organic fertilizer and recyclable water, with enough soluble nutrient, to keep a nearby or rooftop algae production facility going indefinitely.
Some algae are up to 60% oil, and absorb 2.5 times their bodyweight in carbon emission; and, under optimised conditions, effectively double that bodyweight and absorption capacity every 24 hours; meaning, the ten tons of algae you have today, could be 160 tons in just five days, or put another way, around a hundred tons of alternative fuel!
However, you likely settle for fifty-seventy tons a week, so as to keep the process going indefinitely.
Extracting the oil is as simple as sun drying the filtered algae, then crushing it to extract the oil.
The remaining material might be suitable as a food source for some animals or as source material for ethanol production.
The sludge from ethanol production, possible nitrate and phosphate rich material, that might be usable as crop improving fertilizer?
We simply have to stop wasting our waste/fouling the marine environment with it, and then using potable water and expensive hydrocarbons, to make artificial and often expensive fertilizer?
Sealed or closed cycle production systems, rarely if ever, produce objectionable smells, which seems to have been the main/past major objection!?
Rhrosty.

Halduell the Chinese could burn coal, with out putting all those pollutants into the air. That they chose not to clean up their emissions says something about their priorities rather than anything else.

Just about all that comes out of our plants is water vapor & plant fertilizer. To achieve this does add to the cost of our power, but a cost we believe worth paying. China sees things differently regarding life, something we should never forget.