Abstract
To varying degrees, under varying priorities, and depending strongly on country/region, the advancement of nuclear energy must deal with four cardinal issues: waste, proliferation, cost, and safety. While solutions to these issues are usually offered within a techno-economic framework, the future of nuclear energy is being determined by these issues largely through a socio-cultural paradigm vis á vis dwindling public acceptance of this technology. After giving a general perspective of energy consumption in terms of minimal requirements, needs, and constraints, the status of and prospects for nuclear energy are reviewed. Key elements of the public acceptance issue are then described, along with pathways being suggested to improve acceptance of this technology. After outlining a range of technical approaches to the future of nuclear energy offering new directions that might improve public acceptance through addressing the four cardinal issues, the long-term and global impacts and trade-offs for nuclear energy as estimated from an energy-economics-environmental model are reported, with an emphasis being placed on how that future may be tied to present concerns over the growing use of fossil fuels and possible climatic impacts related thereto.
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Krakowski, R.A., Bennett, L., Bertel, E. (1999). Nuclear Fission: For Safe, Globally Sustainable, Proliferation-Resistant, and Cost-Effective Energy. In: Kursunoglu, B.N., Mintz, S.L., Perlmutter, A. (eds) Preparing the Ground for Renewal of Nuclear Power. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4679-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4679-5_11
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