Despite the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster that hit Japan last year, the global appetite for nuclear energy remains largely unchanged as emerging economic powers are set to account for much of the growth in worldwide electricity demand in the coming decades, a U.S. think tank expert said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
The United States also has not wavered from its recent moves to resume construction of nuclear power plants for the first time since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. However, the future of the U.S. nuclear power industry will hinge on various other factors, including price competition with domestically produced natural gas, Jane Nakano said.
Nakano, a research fellow with the energy and national security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was speaking at the seminar organized by the Keizai Koho Center on June 13 to discuss the global prospects for nuclear energy and U.S. energy policy.