The momentum for developing a new generation of nuclear power plants has been building in the US for several years, with the Bush administration calling for a nuclear power “renaissance,” science panels urging government funding of new plant startups, and Congress aiming increasing amounts of money at nuclear energy. Even some environmental organizations have noted that nuclear power might be an immediate solution to global warming.
But scientists from the American Physical Society’s (APS’s) nuclear energy study group, led by University of New Mexico physicist Roger Hagengruber, are cautioning policymakers that any resurgence in US nuclear power will ultimately hinge on the resistance of new power plants and their associated uranium-enrichment and fuel-fabrication facilities to proliferation of weapons-grade nuclear material. In a report issued in May, the group focused on the need for systemic proliferation resistance in civilian nuclear power programs and said that “whether or not the United States...
