Nuclear power: Between faith and fear

[kristopher]

Nuclear power: Between faith and fear
Sharon Squassoni | 25 August 2011

Several years ago, an American utility executive said PDF, "Nuclear energy is a business, not a religion." This was a refreshing change from the usual ardent support or criticism of nuclear energy. To most people, the nuclear landscape looks quite different. Nuclear energy is not seen as just another way to boil water, and that is precisely why it usually evokes an almost religious faith or fear.

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In government we trust …
Public acceptance is fundamentally based on trust. For nuclear energy, that translates into trust in governments, for a variety of reasons. Civil nuclear energy grew out of military nuclear-weapons programs; it is essentially a "spin-off" of defense programs. Because some elements of the nuclear fuel cycle can produce fissile material for either nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons, nuclear energy is highly regulated. Virtually all "commercial" enrichment facilities are either government-owned or government-controlled, and all reprocessing facilities are government-owned. Even the exceptions, such as the US Enrichment Corporation and the European URENCO, have significant government involvement. For example, US government decisions about Energy Department uranium holdings, Russian anti-dumping restrictions, and federal bail-outs have helped the US Enrichment Corporation avoid bankruptcy in the almost 20 years since uranium enrichment was privatized in the United States. URENCO operates profitably without financial support from its governments (German, Dutch, and British) but is strictly bound by international treaties.

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…Or do we?
Japan's investigation into the Fukushima accident exposed vulnerabilities in its system of nuclear regulation. In fact, some have suggested that Fukushima was worsened by peculiarities of the Japanese system. One of the criticisms leveled within Japan is that a cozy relationship between nuclear utilities, regulators, and politicians -- the so-called "nuclear village" -- resulted in avoidable safety lapses. Another is that the bureaucratic structure has favored nuclear power promotion over regulation. A third is that the enormous incentives for siting nuclear power plants all but silenced public opposition, since small villages found it difficult to reject lucrative deals worth billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

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Resurrection for nuclear energy?
Before Fukushima, nuclear energy seemed to be on a glide path toward doubling or tripling capacity worldwide. The traditional challenges -- cost, safety, waste, and proliferation -- were brushed aside in favor of improving energy security and mitigating climate change. The cost of transforming energy sectors to reduce carbon dioxide emissions made nuclear energy seem like a bargain, and safety issues receded as memories of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island grew more distant. Since no country had yet opened a repository for commercial spent nuclear fuel in 50 years without disastrous consequences, nuclear waste decisions could continue on a "wait and see" path. Proliferation concerns, once nuclear trade with India was reopened in 2008, were relegated to "bad actors" like Pakistani A. Q. Khan and North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

Fukushima has altered that ....

http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/roundtables/nuclear-energy-different-other-energy-sources