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" * The Future of Nuclear Energy 3:13 PM Monday March 14, 2011 | Comments (11) * Email * Tweet This * Post to Facebook * Share on LinkedIn * Print FEATURED PRODUCTS Guide to Persuasive Presentations Guide to Persuasive Presentations by John Clayton, John Daly, Isa Engleberg, et al. $19.95 Buy it now » Harvard Business Review on Finding & Keeping the Best People Harvard Business Review on Finding & Keeping the Best People by Harvard Business Review $22.00 Buy it now » HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials by Clayton Christensen, Thomas Davenport, Peter Drucker, et al. $24.95 Buy it now » It's way too soon to say anything definitive about what's going on in Japan. Who really knows what the outcome might be from the frightening breakdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant (the radioactive releases could go on for months)? But the speculation about what this means for a much-touted nuclear "renaissance" in the U.S. has begun. As the New York Times reported Monday, "U.S. Nuclear Industry Faces New Uncertainty." Some quick background: For years, no new nuclear plants were built in the U.S. But nuclear power is now being taken seriously again. Roughly 30 to 40 applications for new plants or expansions to existing facilities are moving through the process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). One of the main reasons nuclear is "back" is that it satisfies two very distinct interest groups: (1) pro-energy lobbyists and companies that usually sit on the right (although President Obama has adopted the rallying cry of "all-of-the-above" as an energy independence strategy as well), and (2) those who want to aggressively fight climate change, who usually camp out on the left. In the past, being an "environmentalist" of any stripe meant being anti-nuclear. More recently, however, some high-profile environmentally-minded people, such as Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, have been promoting nucle