I must admit that as a kid, I was very disappointed when I learned that "Nuclear Energy" was not a mysterious glowing energy thing that would come out of the reactor and get plugged it into the powergrid, but instead it was basically a giant water boiler.

I'm not a huge nuclear power guy (I like it, but I don't think America really has a hope of adopting it on a broad scale until we reach the Gen IV reactors), but honestly, "make water move from one place to another place" is one of the better power-generating we've come up with.

It's certainly better than internal combustion.