Advanced Nuclear Energy Research Transcends Political Climate — forbes.com

Many in the global community may be wrestling with whether to continue their nuclear programs, including some policymakers in the United States. But the country’s national research laboratories say that they are busy devising advanced reactors — the kind that could minimize Fukushima-like accidents. The Fukushima nuclear disaster has compounded what remains a persistent problem, which is the high capital costs associated with building such plants and the relative risks tied to those investments. The goal of the mostly federally-funded research institutions is to work with industry to create safer and more efficient reactors, which includes not just the larger centrally-operated plants but also the smaller modular reactors that are pieced together on site.

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