Half the world seems to think the planet needs nuclear power more than ever. The other half seems just as sure that now’s the time to get rid of it forever. There’s never been a time when nuclear power wasn’t controversial, but the discussion has perhaps never been so polarized. It’s a collision between long-term concerns over global warming — which gives nuclear power appeal as a practical form of carbon-free energy — and anxieties heightened by three reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima plant in northern Japan in March 2011. Nowhere are the conflicts more evident than within Japan. Despite considerable public opposition, Japan began restarting nuclear facilities in 2015 after a hiatus of almost two years. As of mid-August 2016, three reactor units were online.


The Situation
The world’s 446 operating nuclear reactors produce about 11% of its electricity. Sixty-three more are under construction. In the UK, where almost a fifth of the electricity comes from nuclear power, the government has ambitious expansion plans, including a joint venture with China to construct the world’s most expensive atomic station. Germany is headed in the opposite direction: Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to close all its nuclear plants by 2022. China, choked by air pollution, plans to expand nuclear operations and construction fourfold by 2020; India aims to supply 25% of its electricity from nuclear power by 2050. In late 2014, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station was shut down, the fourth US nuclear facility to close in two years. And PG&E Corp is proposing to shutter California’s only operating nuclear power plant in the next decade when licenses for its two units expire. Yet five new reactors may come on line in the US by 2020, according to the World Nuclear Association. Japan went nuclear-free in September 2013 — temporarily, and not entirely by choice. Within a year of the Fukushima disaster, all but two of Japan’s 42 commercial nuclear reactors had been shut down either because of damage from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, or for maintenance or safety checks. The two remaining plants went offline in September 2013. While Japanese leaders pledged to promote renewable energy sources, its policy statements call nuclear power an important source of reliable energy for a nation that relies on imported fuels for 96% of its electricity-generating needs.


The Background
Nuclear pioneers after World War II envisioned an abundance of clean energy at low cost. Before reactor accidents released radiation at Three Mile Island in the US in 1979 and Chernobyl in the Soviet Union seven years later, the benefits seemed to outweigh the dangers. In recent years, nuclear power, which produces no greenhouse-gas emissions, seemed poised for a renaissance based on worries about climate change. The economic and environmental risk-reward ratios are moving targets. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are squeezing torrents of oil and gas from shale rock, pushing down prices. That reduces nuclear power’s economic value but not its appeal to opponents of the new oil-production techniques. Renewables are a small though growing part of the energy picture. Germany’s government plans to get 80% of its electricity from sources like solar and wind by 2050, up from about a third in 2015.


The Argument
Proponents of nuclear energy say accidents like the Fukushima meltdown are rare, that reactors are getting safer, and that fossil fuels are responsible for more deaths, through mine accidents and pollution. Opponents say Fukushima shows that reactors can’t be made to withstand catastrophes. They also cite the cost and environmental risks involved in disposing of nuclear waste. Better, they say, to develop cleaner sources of energy such as solar and wind power. The question is whether renewables will be enough to head off extreme global warming or whether nuclear energy is no longer an option — but a necessity.
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