David Victor Quoted on Indian Nuclear Power
Nuclear mystique
03/19/2011
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri,
Hindustan Times
For such a controversial technology, nuclear power leads a charmed life. It is no longer seen as the economic wunderkind it was in the 1950s when experts predicted it would mean electricity "too cheap to meter". But almost no country has surrendered the nuclear option. The sector has suffered enorm ous setbacks. Three Mile Island placed a moratorium on new reactors in the United States. Chernobyl, the worst nuclear disaster in history, sank public support for nuclear power across Europe.
But a rebound has followed the recession. The past decade has seen a huge surge in nuclear demand. At the forefront has been China's frantic "reactor a month" drive, with India and other emerging economies in its wake.
Even the West began talking themselves out of three decades of nuclear paralysis. Climate change gave nuclear power a green halo.
Despite Fukushima, governments have insisted that what happens in Japan will not dilute commitment to nuclear power. And nowhere is this stronger than in places like China and India.
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David Victor is Director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation (ILAR). Looking across a wide array of issues from environment and energy to human rights, trade and security, the Laboratory explores when (and why) international laws actually work.
