“WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN” - The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle for America's Future - page 173

descended into emergency. h ree hundred thousand people were relo-
cated as responders mounted an unprecedented ef ort to bring the reac-
tors under control. 71 No acute deaths from radiation were recorded, but
the long-term toll remains unknown.
h ere were more immediate consequences, though, for atomic power.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a phase-out of the
country's nuclear plants. Italy turned against nuclear power too. Even
China, suspected around the world of taking a more lax at itude toward
safety than others, announced a moratorium and review. In the United
States, debate again l ared about the future of nuclear power.
For the time being, though, the i ght was only theoretical. Nuclear
power had long struggled with challenging economics. Plants were big
and took many years to build, and in the meantime developers racked
up big bills with their bankers. Before Fukushima, the U.S. Energy
Information Administration had projected that only i ve or six plants
would be built over the next quarter century, a prognosis that found few
dissenters. Fukushima couldn't kill American nuclear power. It didn't
have the chance.
h is could all change, though, if the United States adopted an aggres-
sive plan to cut its carbon emissions. h e U.S. government projects that
if the United States was to impose a modest penalty on carbon dioxide
emissions, that would eventually deliver a bonanza for nuclear energy.
Lit le would change over the next decade—nuclear plants take time
to develop—but within twenty years nuclear electricity could easily
double. 72 h e same thing could happen with a clean energy standard
that lets power producers choose how to cut emissions.
h is outcome, of course, is far from certain, even if the government
takes big steps to try to make it happen. It has been decades since
a new nuclear plant went from conception to launch in the United
States, which makes the cost of nuclear power enormously uncertain.
Moreover, although opposition to nuclear power has been relatively
modest in recent years, that could change quickly in the face of a surge
in new construction interest. Fights over how to dispose of used nuclear
waste could again become critical. Fears of another Fukushima or
Chernobyl could rise too. h e reality remains that no zero-carbon elec-
tricity source—renewable energy, coal or gas with CCS, or nuclear—is