SINGAPORE — Whether Japan's nuclear reactor and spent fuel crisis is contained or becomes worse, it has raised concerns about the risks of generating electricity from atomic power, especially in places that are prone to earthquakes and tsunami.
If Japan, a leader in science and technology, has trouble coping with such risks, should rapidly growing Asian states that need reliable electricity supplies review their nuclear expansion plans?
More than 155 power reactors are planned and over 320 others proposed. Most of the planned reactors are in Northeast, Southeast and South Asia. Sixty are under construction worldwide. If all the others were to go ahead, they could more than double nuclear generating capacity by 2030.