In March the UK became the 21st country to sign a nonbinding “statement of principles” that attempts to address the conflicting Global Nuclear Energy Partnership goals of spreading nuclear energy generation throughout the world while preventing the spread of technologies needed to manufacture and recycle nuclear fuel to nations that don’t already possess them. Signatories to the GNEP include the nuclear haves Russia, China, Japan, and France, have-nots like Senegal, Jordan, and Ghana, and nations that have relied on other countries for their nuclear fuel, including the former Soviet satellites Hungary, Bulgaria, and Lithuania.
Many experts believe that a vast expansion of nuclear power is the only plausible option for meeting the anticipated explosion in electricity demand from the developing world while mitigating global warming. According to one widely accepted computer model, the Mini Climate Change Assessment Model, stabilization of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at 550 ppm—a level that many...
