Radiation from operating nuclear reactors and other activities involved in nuclear energy is dangerous. Energy should be generated locally, even by individual households, rather than by centralized power stations. The countries that need it the most will continue to use it. France gets 77 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors, the rest being hydroelectric. Japan is close to 30 percent and increasing steadily.
Japan has little domestic coal and no oil.
We have plenty of coal and natural gas, can afford to import more than half of our oil. Therefore, we can afford delays caused by controversy unless we are zapped by the greenhouse effect. However, the counterculture generation is passing through the peak of its political power, and the next generations seem to be more rational about nuclear energy and many other issues. Therefore, the U.S. is likely to resume building reactors before being driven to it by other countries getting economic advantages. Click here to return to Fission, Fusion, and the Bomb.