Executive Summary

In the 1970s, nuclear energy was expected to quickly become the dominant generator of electrical power. Its fuel costs are remarkably low because a million times more energy is released per unit weight by fission than by combustion. But safety requires redundant cooling and control systems, massive leak-tight containment structures, very conservative seismic design, and extremely stringent quality control. As a result, the capital costs of nuclear power plants at least, in Western Europe and North America, proved to be quite high and nuclear power did not become the dominant generator of electrical power.

The routine health risks and greenhouse gas emissions from fission power are small relative to those associated with coal, but there are also high-consequence risks: nuclear weapons proliferation and the possibility of overheated fuel releasing massive quantities of fission products to the environment. The public is sensitive to these risks. The 1979 Three Mile Island and 1986 Chernobyl accidents, along with the high capital costs, ended the rapid growth of global nuclear power capacity (Figures 14.1 and 14.2). After these accidents, the industry improved its overall safety culture, particularly with regard to operator training. This chapter was completed before the large releases or radioactivity from the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant that began in March 2011. That event has resulted in reviews of the adequacy of nuclear power safety design and regulation worldwide and, in some countries, a reconsideration of plans for new reactors and/or reactor operating license extensions.