Nuclear Power and Linear History

One of the underlying themes of modernity is linear history. The concept of linear history is one of the guiding stars of scientists and engineers who feel their work is holy and beyond all reproach. (My next post is going to be on Commander Data as the savior and Jesus)

Is there any group of people who are so ostensibly "smart" in the Leopold and Loeb kind of way who have also been so reckless? Nuclear power is the prime example. Like most new tech that requires a lot of investment it had to be sold hard to the general public since we don't live in a totally fascict command and control economy. The sales pitch on nuclear energy was that it would be "too cheap to meter". The chief problem with it is radioactive waste can be dangerous many times longer than any nation, empire, or civilization persisted.

The moderns belief in linear history makes it possible for them to blithely make plans for building storage facilities that will last multiple thousand years, even though the oldest stone buildings of the western world are crumbled ruins and are only about 2000 years old. More pointedly, government labs and storage facilities that are just decades old cold war relics already failed multiple times.