N-energy no longer non grata

DAVOS, Switzerland — Few subjects seem less suited to the intoxicating air of the World Economic Forum's annual conference than nuclear energy. Aging, expensive, unpopular, and still vulnerable to catastrophic accidents, it is the antithesis of the kinds of cutting-edge solutions that beguile the wealthy and well-intentioned, who gather each winter in this Alpine ski resort.

And yet nuclear energy is suddenly back on the agenda — and not just here. Spurred on by politicians interested in energy independence and scientists who specialize in the field of climate change, Germany is reconsidering a commitment to shut down its nuclear power plants. France, Europe's leading nuclear power producer, is increasing its investment, as is Finland.

At a time when industrialized countries are wrestling with how to curb carbon dioxide emissions, nuclear energy has one indisputable advantage: unlike coal, oil, natural gas or even biological fuels, it emits no carbon dioxide. That virtue, in the view of advocates, is enough to offset its well-documented shortcomings.

"It has put nuclear back into the mix," said Daniel C. Esty, director of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University. "We're seeing a new balancing of the costs and benefits."

But being in the mix does not mean nuclear energy will shove aside fossil fuels any time soon. In a way, the revival of interest in nuclear power illustrates the lack of palatable choices to combat global warming.

Renewable energy, while growing steadily, has limitations. Windmills don't turn when the wind isn't blowing; solar power and geothermal energy are not yet economical enough; hydroelectric dams can be disruptive themselves.

That leaves nuclear power as a "clean" alternative to fossil fuels. It already generates one-sixth of the world's electricity, but it fell out of favor in the West two decades ago after the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island accidents. The previous German government, in fact, pledged to shut down its last nuclear power station by 2022.

But now Germany has also committed to deep reductions in carbon dioxide emissions in the next decade, and its new chancellor, Angela Merkel, rekindled the debate over nuclear energy by saying, "We should consider what consequences it will have if we shut off our nuclear power plants."

That comment was a reference to Europe's increasing vulnerability as an importer of foreign fossil fuels. Just as the United States worries about disruptions in the supply of Middle East oil, Europe worries about Russia's penchant for using its gas and oil pipelines as a political weapon.