Nuclear Energy

A very significant recent sociopolitical development is the resurgence of worldwide concern over the threat of a nuclear holocaust. Although the energy problem is not central to this question, a point of overlap that is being increasingly discussed is the extent to which the spread of nuclear power and it attendant technology contributes to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. One view has it that the "nuclear genie is out of the bottle" and that any nation of group that wants to have nuclear weapons badly enough can acquire them, either by fabricating of purchasing the components, whether of not it has a commercial nuclear power program. This is especially true for the major industrial countries. An alternative |view admits to this possibility, but argues that in a world of some 150 nation -states, the likelihood that a country will make the fateful decision acquire nuclear weapons is enhanced by their having access to the technology and infrastructure of nuclear power, which makes that vision both less costly and less politically risky.