Thanks to Wikicommons.

As Japanese workers heroically battle a potential nuclear disaster, related questions are being raised in America.

What is the future of nuclear power plants in America?

After the Three Mile Accident in 1979 almost all nuclear projects in the US ended. Should the same thing happen now?

With the price of oil moving progressively higher,  America had been looking more favorably at the merits of nuclear power. The recent events on the other side of the Pacific Ocean have thrown a wrench into this.

Whether this is a temporary or permanent roadblock to American nuclear power is yet to be sure. For Slate magazine, William Slatetan defends continued nuclear power plants hoping that people

cool this panic before it becomes a political meltdown.

Agreeing, W.W. over at Democracy in America thinks that the disasters in Japan

shouldn’t change our calculations about nuclear energy all that much. While we are likely to gain valuable insights for improving the safety of nuclear energy from Japan’s experience, the main lesson seems to be that we should avoid building nuclear power plants in areas with considerable seismic activity.

Not everyone is so confident that the lessons we learn will help. Rory Kennedy, in a piece for the Daily Beast, worries that

no amount of planning and preparation can fully anticipate the sudden brutality and random course of a natural disaster. Any claims otherwise speak not to deeper understanding but to baser motives. In truth, the lone “clean energy” solution is eliminating nuclear plants altogether.

The political fallout of this will have to be seen.

While we worry about the effects on the US, let’s not forget about the people in Japan. For further info on the issue check out MIT’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Info Hub (especially Dr. Joseph Oehmen’s thoughts on the issue).