Strategic environments for nuclear energy innovation in the next half century

In prospecting the role of nuclear energy in a future society, this article attempts to foresee the changes of the socio-economic environment including social attitudes, the economy and the environment, and to analyze their interactions with the exploitation of nuclear energy itself. With this perception, the so-called SWOT analysis is employed to identify the internal strengths (S) and/or weaknesses (W) of nuclear energy when compared with other energy competitors on the basis of an evaluation of the external factors which are likely to play the roles of opportunities (O) for and/or threats (T) against the technological changes in nuclear energy. Out of the external environmental factors, electrification, the regulations for the global environments and the limited availability of fossil fuels are analyzed to provide an opportunity for the nuclear energy innovation in the future. The changes of consumption behavior and the liberation of the marketplace are classified as threat factors. But urbanization, an accelerated technological development and an increased attention to the environment are expected to work either as opportunity factors or threat factors while depending on the innovations of nuclear technology. Such internal factors as the recycling ability of nuclear fuels, high energy density and little emission of greenhouse gases are counted as the strengths of nuclear power, while some weak points for its role in a future society are found both in its social situations such as the management of radioactive waste, safety and nuclear proliferation and in its structure of high capital costs.