Nuclear Power Generation – Past, Present and Future¹

In this paper we outline the origins of the nuclear power industry in the nuclear weapons programme of the Second World War, and chart the growth of the nuclear industry through the 1950s and 1960s, and its subsequent decline during the 1970s and 1980s as a result of increasing costs and economic crisis, coupled with high profile accidents at nuclear plants at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. We then explore the claim that we are witnessing a “nuclear renaissance”, characterised by a growth in the construction of new nuclear plants in the West but particularly in Asia. Three main factors have led to arguments for nuclear energy gaining greater traction: concerns over climate change and the need to promote low carbon energy technologies; the need to enhance energy security; and the need to meet large increases in demand for electricity particularly in developing countries. We then outline six variables that have the potential to impose limits on any large scale expansion of nuclear energy. Finally we explore to what extent the March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan is likely to negatively impact the “nuclear renaissance”.