Nuclear's Once Bright and Shiny Future Blinks Out

Posted: 05/12/2012 3:43 pm

Don't look now, but one of the biggest and most famous industries in the world, nuclear power, once seen as the lynchpin of the future, is reeling yet again after huge political setbacks in Japan and France.

Last year's disaster at Fukushima is having an even bigger effect than the Chernobyl disaster of the '80s. The latter could be blamed on the backward old Soviet Union. But Fukushima happened in future-oriented Japan.

May has seen the shutdown of all 54 nuclear reactors in Japan. Nuclear power had provided one-third of Japan's electric power.

Then came the defeat of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, Japan has just made itself nuclear energy-free for the first time in more than 40 years. But the country hasn't prepared for the adjustment.

The new French administration plans to cut the nation's use of nuclear power by one-third by 2025. Currently, France relies on nuclear power for 75% of its electricity. (The US gets 20% of its electric power from nuclear.) New Socialist President Francois Hollande's plan would cut that to 50%. He also plans to shut down Fessenheim, France's most famous nuclear plant, which is located in an area of seismic activity on the Rhine River.