Summary of SpringBoard Reading << Nuclear power's new dawn>>

The article i am summarizing on is on the new generation of Nuclear power plants to provide for the rising energy needs of the world and to fight global warming.The article starts the ball kicking by describing a scene at a nuclear power plant in the near future 2035. Describing how the nuclear power plant is run at high operating temperature of 900C and that not a meltdown emergency. Due to the high temperature, it generate hydrogen fuel while active as a power plant. This is a vision of the future from Generation IV International Forum, which is a group of ten nations that is planning nuclear reactors of tomorrow. They envision high efficiency plants, and simple safety feature that prevents any accident from happening. In short, 'meltdown proof'- deliberate actions to cause a disaster is futile, thus making nuclear reactors less of a terrorist target.
As, nuclear power do not produce carbon dioxide as a by-product,it has become alternative as a energy source amidst the rising global temperature. Mainly a few obstacles that have to be overcome to build 'envisioned reactor' are cost, efficiency , feasibility and technological constraint like coolant used in the reactors. Only after these obstacles are overcome, then nuclear power can be considered as the fuel for the future.
The most advance concept is the VHTR( Very High Temperature Reactor) which Japan's Atomic Energy Research Institute already operated a test reactor that reach operating goal of 950 C. At high operating temperature, hydrogen fuel can be obtain from water in turn could replace the dependent on oil for energy needs.
The final section of the article covers on the technical aspect of how the radioactive fuel is fed into the reactor and what designs could make it be accident-proof. Lastly , it is concluded that the current technology is still far from the envision design and considering the current cost of nuclear energy, much improvements/researches are needed. As seen from a comment made by Alain Bugat , who head the France's Atomic Commission, " if we have a working demo of some design by 2030 we will be doing well", the gap of technology to cover before VHTR can be realized is huge.