As the anniversary of the Fukushima disaster approaches, nuclear power has become a very popular topic in world news! Kuwait, in a reaction caused by the Fukushima incident, has decided to abandon its nuclear power program; although, a year ago it was planning on creating at least 4 new reactors by 2012! Canadians seem to have mixed feelings about nuclear power, but have chosen to continue with their nuclear power program. The Japanese have decided this incident was a cue for their government to take a more active role in policing of nuclear power and regulation.
Many energy engineers and nuclear engineers have seen the Fukushima as a major opportunity. Many countries (including the US) have largely ignored nuclear power in recent decades, neither expanding nor shrinking the nuclear industry in their respective countries. Nuclear engineers agree that this has caused a lot of negative publicity for the nuclear industry, but it has shoved nuclear power back under world focus, something that hasn't occurred in quite some time.
The benefits of nuclear power has also remained a very interesting topic and I'm really glad I've decided to take my project in this new direction. Something that I read recently that I thought was really interesting was nuclear power can cause danger to humans , but the decay of nuclear atoms causes NO danger to the surrounding ecosystems! I thought that was really interesting, because when I think decay of nuclear elements, I think of the surrounding areas as being somewhat like a wasteland! Uranium is extremely abundant in the earth's crust. Also, the cost of nuclear fuel is a small part of the total reaction, so prices would not be as high or as easily changed as those of natural gas!
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