by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama caused viewers to do a double take when he called for a boost in nuclear energy in his recent State of the Union address.
But while many praised the proposal, opponents doubted the plan would come to fruition.
"To create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives," said the president. "And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country."
THREE CHALLENGES
Opponents, however, took the issue with high costs, safety concerns and the possibility of weapons proliferation.
"While the nuclear power industry promotes nuclear energy as a response to global warming and therefore foresees a 'nuclear renaissance' about to take place, I believe that these three major and interrelated challenges to the industry will seriously hinder its practical implementation," said Paul Walker, director of security and sustainability at Global Green USA, an environmental group founded by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
According to Global Green, there are around 104 power plants in the U.S., generating around 20 percent of the country's electricity and accounting for 16 percent of global energy output.
But Walker said he did not see nuclear power rising much above that level and current figures could decline because of the decade-long process for building new nuclear power facilities.
Fears of triggering weapons proliferation may hinder a nuclear renaissance in the United States, although experts have expressed differing opinions over the issue.
Some contend that while creating a nuclear explosion is easy, many nations do not possess the electronics and engineering capabilities to deliver a nuclear device to its target.
Storage space for nuclear waste may also be running out, as the Congress is prohibiting the proposed storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, requiring plant operators to store dangerous nuclear waste on-site at plants, raising public health and homeland security concerns.
SAFETY CONCERN
Safety is another concern. There have been two major nuclear plant accidents in the world -- Chernobyl and Three Mile Island -- and as a result of the latter no nuclear facility has been built in the United States since 1979.
But the Soviet-era power plant in Chernobyl was the result of major design deficiencies, violations of operating procedures and the absence of a safety culture, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Some experts said Chernobyl used an old design and outdated safety features that would not likely be licensed today, and contended the accident was fluke unlikely to re-occur.
But it takes only one accident to spur panic, the fallout of which could halt nuclear power expansion, some analysts said.
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