Glenn Reynolds, on whether the post-tsunami nuclear reactor problems in Japan will affect nuclear power development (such as it is) in the USA:
[T]his is a good argument for the several newer, inherently-safe nuclear designs. The good news: General Electric, which is joined at the hip to the Obama Administration, is big in the nuclear business. So corruption and interest may do the work that should be done by sound policy here…
Well, you go to establish energy independence with the President that you have, not the President that you want.
Wow. I had the same thought…
The major problem is that most of the newer or fail-safe designs aren’t U.S. designs…
CANDU is a Canadian fail-safe design that is hardly new… has its’ roots back to the 1950s … but fails safe. The Chinese have operational CANDU reactors.
Pebble bed, where the uranium is inside a graphite jacket, is a German design. The Chinese have at least one operating pebble bed reactor…
Do you see a trend here?
Mew