Green Daily

In general, when it comes to nuclear energy, lots of people harbor serious misgivings about safety and sustainability. Put that technology in the hands of a developing country, and you have a serious controversy. So, it comes as no surprise that the UN is at the center of a heated debate as it considers whether it should expand its Clean Development Mechanism -- the UN's program for funding "clean" energy projects around the world -- into the business of atomic energy.

The CDM was created under the Kyoto Protocol to help developing nations grow in a sustainable and responsible way -- whether it has actually worked, the jury is still out. By adding a super-controversial energy source like nuclear power to the mix, the program might actually face opposition from the groups that were cheerleading for it in the first place. Hmm, doesn't seem like a smart move.

Martin Hiller of the WWF says "Nuclear power is not the energy of the future... the CDM should be about renewable energy." I'm assuming that most of the other large conservation groups feel the same way. Still, there are plenty of others who feel that nuclear is the best and cleanest option to turn CO2 levels around quickly. At the moment, nuclear energy is thought to have almost no greenhouse emissions, but that could change as uranium becomes scarcer, and extraction becomes a more carbon-intense process.

All safety concerns aside, nuclear development is going to be greatly limited by the small number of manufacturers that supply reactors and other necessary equipment. After a really slow couple of decades for nuclear industry, the worldwide stampede towards atomic power is creating a serious traffic jam. The waiting list for buying a nuclear reactor core is already backed up until 2015.