Nuclear Energy Rejuvenation

Global momentum is building around nuclear energy with the International Atomic Energy Agency estimating that the world’s nuclear power capacity could more than double by 2050.

In the US, a 2023 survey showed 57 percent want more nuclear plants, up from 43 percent in 2020. During the same period, support for nuclear in the Netherlands grew by half, with twice as many proponents now as opponents. 

In Poland, support grew even faster: from 39 to 75 percent in only one and a half years, largely due to the desire to gain energy independence from nearby Russia. In Belgium, 85 percent want to keep nuclear in the energy mix. In Sweden, 84 percent want to continue to use nuclear power or build more reactors. Only one in ten respondents want to shut down nuclear plants. ⁽²⁾ 

Nuclear plants shut down in Germany and Japan are being put on-line.

Today, the country that derives the highest proportion of its electricity from nuclear fission--64.8 percent as of 2023--is France, which built out its nuclear fleet starting in the 70s. We don’t exactly think of France as a radioactive dystopia of illness and death.

At COP 28, the climate conference held in Dubai in 2023, more than 20 countries, led by the US, pledged to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050. ⁽³⁾

James Hansen co-authored a 2013 study claiming that nuclear energy had prevented an estimated 1.8 million deaths that would have otherwise resulted from fossil fuel pollution. He and his co-author, Pushker Kharecha, calculated that his number was 370 times greater than the number of lives lost to radiation poisoning and accidents. ⁽⁴⁾

Germany

Germany shut down its last three reactors in April 2023, but three years later, they’ve realized it was a terrible mistake and want to rebuild them or put small modular reactors likely on the same sites. ⁽⁵⁾

After 66 years of operating nuclear power without any major accidents, the irony was that Germany shut down its nuclear industry mostly because other countries had accidents. But now they admit they need more electricity.

Chancellor Merz said, “It was a serious strategic mistake to exit nuclear energy. We are now undertaking the most expensive energy transition in the entire world. I know of no other country that makes things so difficult for its own industry.” ⁽⁵⁾

Germany once had 19 nuclear power plants, which provided more than a quarter of its electricity, but now they are bleeding industrial power, losing solar, wind, EVs and now AI before it has barely started.

Two years ago a study showed that if Germany just kept nuclear power, it could have saved $600 billion and cut emissions by 73%. ⁽⁶⁾

Japan

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake at Japan’s Sendai nuclear power plant just offshore from Northern Honshu, Japan was one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history. The resulting tsunami was one of the worst ever recorded. The earthquake and tsunami extensively damaged six 33-to-40 year old nuclear generating units at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant. More than10,000 people died in the earthquake and tsunami. ⁽⁷⁾

A Japanese court ruling in 2018 put the number of radiation deaths at one. This was a former employee who had worked in several nuclear plants since 1980, the last few years in Fukushima. According to a provision in the law, that man’s fatal lung cancer could theoretically be attributed to the radiation he contacted there. So: zero in the world of science, one in the world of politics. ⁽²⁾

Yet, based on media coverage, many and perhaps most folks believed more people died from the nuclear power plant shutdown than the earthquake and tsunami combined. The reality is nuclear fears took a strong toll on residents near than Fukushima than nuclear radiation.

While some people in residential areas near Fukushima were wearing cumbersome radiation-blocking suits, filtered gas masks, gloves and booties, there are many people living carefree in Brazil, India, Norway and other places where folks have lived normal lives for countless generations with radiation levels as much as 100 times greater than forbidden areas of the Fukushima homes. ⁽⁸⁾

Now, Japan has started a reactor at the world’s largest nuclear plant nearly 15 years after the disaster at the Fukushima power plant forced the country to shut all its nuclear reactors. ⁽¹⁾

This is the latest installment in Japan’s nuclear power resurgence, which still has a long way to go. The seventh reactor is not expected to come back on until 2030, and the remaining five could be decommissioned. That leaves the plant with far less capacity than it once had when all seven reactors were operational.

Heavily reliant on energy imports, Japan was an early adopter of nuclear power. But in 2011 all 54 of Japan’s reactors had to be shut down after the most powerful earthquake it had ever recorded triggered a meltdown at Fukushima, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.

Since 2015, Japan has restarted 15 out of its 33 operable reactors.

Before 2011, nuclear power accounted for nearly 30% of Japan’s electricity and the country planned to get that up to 50% by 2030. Its energy plan last year unveiled a tamer goal. It wants nuclear power to provide 20% of its electricity needs by 2040. ⁽¹⁾

Japan’s leader and its energy companies have long pushed for nuclear power. They say it is more reliable than renewable energy like solar and wind, and better suited for Japan’s mountainous terrain.

A 2019 paper claimed that if Japan and Germany had kept their nuclear plants open between 2011 and 2017, they could have prevented 28,000 pollution related deaths. ⁽⁹⁾

Nuclear Waste

Nuclear waste is compact. As a result, it doesn’t take up much space. If we put together all the spent fuel that has been collected from nuclear reactors around the world since the 1950s, it would fit into a single football stadium. Within the chalk lines of the pitch it would form a block 4m (13ft) high.

In just two hours, the world produces the same amount of electronic waste, and in three minutes, as much household waste as all the world’s nuclear plants produce high level radioactive waste in one year. Whereas that bit of nuclear waste is carefully isolated in water or in casks, such care is not applied to all the other waste that’s potentially dangerous to public health and the environment. ⁽²⁾

References

1. Koh Ewe, “Japan restarts world’s largest nuclear plant,” principia-scientific.com, January 21, 2026
2. Marco Visscher, The Power of Nuclear, (London, Bloomsbury Sigma, 2024)
3. Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, Atomic Dreams, (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2025)
4. James Hansen and Pushkar Kharecha, “Nuclear power saves lives,” Nature, 497, 539, 2013
5. Jo Nova, “German Chancellor admits shutting down nuclear plants was a serious mistake,” joannenova.com.au, January 20, 2026
6. Emblemsvag, “What if Germany had invested in nuclear power? A comparison between Germany energy policy the last 20 years and an alternative policy of investing in nuclear power,” International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 43(1), 2024
7. Jay Lehr and Alan Lloyd, “With time and reflection, Fukushima lessons taking shape,” Environment & Climate News, February 2012
8. Jay Lehr, “Nuclear fears bumping reality in wake of Fukushima,” Environment & Climate News, July 2021
9. Pushker A. Kharecha and Makiko Sato, “Implications of energy and CO2 emission changes in Japan and Germany after the Fukushima accident,” Energy Policy 132 (2019), 647-653

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