Open thread for night owls: The future of nuclear power

The following summary of The Implications of Expanded Nuclear Energy in Asia was written by Charles D. Ferguson before the Fukushima "incident." It is part of the non-partisan but conservative National Bureau of Asian Research's series on "Asia's Rising Power and America's Continued Purpose." Whether the unfolding events in Japan will have a major impact on the so-called "nuclear renaissance" remains to be seen. You can download the 29-page pdf of this analysis for free until March 31. Afterward, it will cost you $4.95:

Asia?s rapid growth in nuclear power use will significantly influence safe and secure operation of nuclear facilities, the global nuclear supply chain, and the potential for further nuclear weapons proliferation. Although further growth may occur in nuclear power entrant states in Southeast Asia, the spread of nuclear technologies will not necessarily lead to more proliferation as long as the U.S. and other powers can ensure security alliances and can integrate pariah states such as North Korea and Burma into the international system. Similarly, Asian powers play a major role in supporting international efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Policy Implications:

    ? Ensuring safe and secure operations of nuclear power plants in Asia is clearly in U.S. interests because a major accident or an attack on such a facility would likely harm the prospects for further expansion of nuclear power worldwide.

    ? To remain economically competitive, U.S. nuclear companies must leverage corporate partnerships and demonstrate that they can build plants on time and within budget.

    ? Stopping further enrichment and reprocessing plants is unlikely to occur, but the U.S. should lead efforts to require more effective means of monitoring and safeguarding these facilities and to limit such plants to allies and currently nuclear-armed states.

    ? Shoring up security alliances will serve as an effective means of nonproliferation. In particular, redoubling coordinated efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons in North Korea will help quell the desire for such weapons in Japan and South Korea.

? ? ? ? ?

At Daily Kos on this date in 2009:

Jindal, in a new "deep thought" from his speech last night in front of the NRCC. Apparently being against natural disaster preparedness wasn't working out for him, so he's moved on to more abstractly declaring himself against things, and stealing lines from Limbaugh to do it:

The suggestion behind the "do you want the President to fail question" is this -- If you don?t answer their question with a loud "NO" immediately, if you don?t express instant obedience to the question, then you are not really a patriot, and you are essentially trying to undermine America.

Oh, for the love of...

Jindal, you four-star general in the media army of conservative emptyheads, that's exactly what you, your party and the very people you're giving a speech to did during Bush's entire freakin' reign.  Whether it was attacking Iraq, or submitting to self-evidently asinine interpretations of international law, or U.S. law, or torture, or wiretapping, or privatizing social security, or even the freakin' debate over S-CHIP -- and that one was a challenge, but not one that went unmet -- there was always a moaning chorus of Republican assholes asserting, on the TV and radio, that if you didn't accept the most conservative Republican view of whatever-the-hell-the-thing-was (not just the president's view, mind you, but whichever conservative Republican was asserting the point), you maybe Were Not Really A Patriot.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/HgC9br_lBVw/-Open-thread-for-night-owls:-The-future-of-nuclear-power

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