THE SECOND OBVIOUS AREA for R&D investment is nuclear energy. Nuclear energy doesn’t emit carbon dioxide. Perhaps surprisingly, nuclear energy is also very safe. Under normal operating conditions, it emits less radioactivity than coal (yes, there is actually radioactivity in mined coal that is released when it is burned). Although we think of the terrible disasters of Fukushima and Chernobyl, nuclear energy has one of the lowest death risks of any form of energy; in fact, it kills about two thousand times fewer people than coal power, because of coal’s massive pollution.
