France's nuclear power program continues in force

摘要

Until the disaster at the tsunami-struck Fukushima I nuclear plant in Japan, nuclear power looked poised for a worldwide expansion. Now the picture is far less clear. But perhaps the message that ought to be taken from the Japanese crisis, and indeed from the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, is not so much that nuclear energy-hailed even by many environmentalists as the most realistic way to ensure low-carbon energy security-is too dangerous, but that it urgently needs an upgrade. After all, the shutdown procedure at the newer Fukushima II plant worked as planned: whatever questions remain about the location of the plants in vulnerable positions, there is reason to believe that newer technologies are safer ones.