Nuclear Cool
Is nuclear energy of the verge of becoming cool? Can nuclear power help the world keep its cool? The answer is trending to yes.
The Asian Development Bank “may end its long-standing rejection of nuclear energy and embrace it as a green power source for rapidly expanding Asia” according to a senior bank official quoted in the International Herald Tribune. Although traditionally opposed to nuclear power, the ADB official explained “now we have an environment where a lot of climate change issues are becoming significant and nuclear power is quite positive in that context.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the world's nuclear power industry welcomes “the tacit backing given to their technology by some of the world's top scientists and economists in the latest analysis of the climate change crisis” by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC “report noted that nuclear power provides about 16 percent of the world's electricity and said that figure could rise to 18 percent by 2030.” An industry official suggested an even brighter future, noting that almost 80% of France’s electricity is generated by nuclear power.
Although environmental NGOs are maintaining their hostility to nuclear power, those views are becoming as fossilized as the fuels they oppose.
See International Herald Tribune article
See Reuters story
