content: From what I gather, here are some of the reasons why people don't like 4th gen nuclear :  The time frame for planning, research, development and testing is counted in decades and seems to be accumulating failures The cost of it is astronomical, and the cost of electricity produced will be astronomical also. It's a highly centralized form of energy production, people are sick of big corp / big gov and want more localized energy production, like what is being done in Germany It favors the very rich countries and giant energy corporations It's not easily scalable There are concerns about long term maintenance There are concerns about potential terrorist attacks, sabotage, etc. There are risks associated with political instability Then there are the usual fears about radiations (irrational or not) caused by past accidents of nuclear plants, the history of anything nuclear going wrong, etc.   My personal opinion is that I prefer a future with less energy consumption, a decentralized / localized production in the hands of communities, smaller investments, progressive scalability, and fewer long term risks.