Reply To: Earthquake v. Powerplants

[rashidas]

Death Knell for the Nuclear Power Industry:

The recent disaster in Japan will be very bad for the nuclear power industry around the world. Just as Chernobyl did 25 years ago, this disaster will brand fission power as dangerous and unreliable in the public mind, regardless of the efforts of the nuclear industry to explain it away. I doubt that any banks, insurance companies or other financial institutions will support building more nuclear power plants. Only centralized autocratic governments like China can continue to build them, and public opinion will be against it in any populated area.

This disaster will also be bad for aneutronic fusion, as fusion (which to the ignorant public sounds like fission) will be tarred with the same brush. This will make fund raising for fusion research even more difficult than before the disaster.