Here's a snippet from the nuclear portion of Horgan's piece, followed by some thoughts from me on energy arguments centered on tradeoffs: (dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com)
I don't usually use the embodied energy argument, but these buildings have a serious load of concrete in them, take a huge amount of energy to demolish, and create an enormous pile of unrecyclable waste. (treehugger.com)
But recent studies have cast doubt on the energy argument some research has even found that it ultimately leads to greater power use. (scientificamerican.com)