Human genius. Nuclear energy is surely one of the best and safest energy sources we have. To curtail or rubbish nuclear technological progress in the wake of the limited fallout from Fukishima in Japan would be a colossal mistake. We need more private capital, more nuclear scientists, more smart people developing nuclear technology, not fewer. Unburden the market in nuclear energy. Reduce the government and environmental obstacles to research, development, deployment and usage of nuclear power. By so doing we will be able to ramp up systems and grids to support growing economies and liberate ourselves in part from higher cost water-based electricity grids. There is no reason not to expand the frontiers of nuclear science.

A great note on the practicality of technological advancements in this sector was made by Dr. Lester -- the head of the department of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Likewise, no one today can foresee the future of nuclear energy technology at the end of the 21st century. All that can be said with confidence now is that the nuclear power plants of the year 2100 will have about as much resemblance to today's workhorse light-water reactors as a modern automobile has to a 1911 Model T.

In the aftermath of Fukushima, some new technologies already in the pipeline look more promising. New fuel "cladding" materials are being developed that don't react with high-temperature steam to produce hydrogen—the cause of the shocking explosions in Japan. Other new plant designs rely on natural heat conduction and convection rather than electric-powered pumps and valves and human intervention to cool the fuel in reactors that have shut down.

Today's most advanced designs go even further toward the goal of "walkaway safety," that is, reactors that can shut themselves down and cool themselves off without electric power or any human intervention at all. Longer-term possibilities include lifetime fueling, which would allow a single charge of fuel to power a reactor for its entire life—making it, in effect, a nuclear battery. Integrated power plant/waste disposal systems are another promising concept. Here, used fuel never leaves the site and is disposed of directly in stable, dry bedrock several kilometers below the earth's surface (more than 10 times as deep as the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada.)
 

Huge gains in computing power already enable far more precise simulations of nuclear-reactor behavior than ever before. Computational advances will also make it possible to design radiation-resistant materials literally atom by atom and, perhaps, specially tailored nanostructures that could store long-lived nuclear waste safely for tens of thousands of years. All of this can be foreseen today, and much greater advances surely lie over the horizon.”

Let the market work. We need safer structures, the ability to store nuclear waste and more technology to make nuclear based processes more efficacious. We can't do this if in a panic of media-created fear mongering, we neuter the industry.