Thursday, November 22, 2012

Giving Thanks:

Nuclear Power Progress

On this Thanksgiving Day, I have only a moment to reflect on the past year and think about giving thanks.  Most of my thanks, of course, is for family and friends, and for health and well-being.

But I also want to reflect on some positive developments in the nuclear field:
  • Despite the severity of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi, there are still likely to be very few health effects from the releases of radiation.
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  • Although some countries have used the Fukushima accident to try to reject nuclear power for the future, in most of the world, the public and the policy-makers continue to recognize the need for continued development and use of nuclear power. 
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  • In these countries, the industry is using the lessons learned from Fukushima to further strengthen the safety of operating reactors. 
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  • There is indeed a Renaissance taking place in nuclear power deployment, at the very least, in countries like China and India.
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  • The U.S. continues to recognize the need to develop new nuclear technologies, and this week has seen the award of a long-awaited contract for small reactor development.
With that, let me wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!



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1 comment:

  1. Hi just found your blog... Good to see some positive things said about the use of ionizing radiation. Talking of things I found recently, here's an “An Open Letter to the Radiation Safety Professionals of the World” that was written nearly a year ago, but has only been known to me for a couple of days (found at http://depletedcranium.com/an-open-letter-to-the-radiation-safety-professional-of-the-world/) I think he says it very well - comments? Kind regards, Chris

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