From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

The Nuclear Renaissance and Fukushima.

Hello again, I'm Orrin Alney, and this is To the Poet from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues. Americans care about most.

Global warming was the best news for the nuclear power industry since three-mile island. New reactors were planned in the U.S. for the first time in decades. But the growing radiation threat from Japan's disaster has raised disturbing questions about both safety and economics. More frightened Americans are saying, not in my backyard, and investors are not

interested unless public money's promise to pay for the cost of possible accidents. Is nuclear

energy viable to help slow the pace of climate change? Can alternatives expand fast enough to

replace it? How safe are the plants we have now? On reporters' notebook later on, did the air traffic controller fall asleep?

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and

Catherine T. McArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Warren, I'm only back with To the Point.

As Japan struggles to get its Fukushima reactors under control,

Chancellor Angela Merkel says that Germany will phase out nuclear power.

Should the U.S. do the same thing?

How safe are existing nuclear plants?

Are new ones needed to cope with climate change?

Do they make sense economically?

A lot of questions today.

On reporter's notebook, Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C.

will now be staffed with two air traffic controllers in case of one goes to sleep.

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