Most nuclear power plants that exist today were designed between 1960 and 1980; almost none was constructed around the world after 1986, when public perception about nuclear energy changed drastically due to the Chernobyl accident. Yet, many plants remain in service and new ones are being planned as crude oil prices soar and conservative estimates calculate that the price per barrel will reach US$200 during the next decade.

This means that the odds of a new Chernobyl taking place will begin to increase due to market pressures and economic needs; that will indeed be bad, but the presence of able and fanatical terrorist groups willing and capable of striking any place with enough explosive power to actually perforate the shields that protect us from core radiation at any nuclear station, makes it necessary to review all security standards related to the atomic industry.

The current status is, unfortunately, dismal: almost no plant in the world is capable of resisting a committed attack of the kind that terrorists can mount today. Read more about this here.

Related:

Survival products

Are there any proposals regarding the design of more secure nuclear plants or do governments stick to the same layouts as years before?

So far it seems that all existing plans relate to prior concepts. It is true that gadgetry inside the new plants will probably different, but the key issue - the armour around the reactor - doesn't seem to have changed.

Constructing a nuclear powerplant is a huge investment, and I don't think that investors are really interested in spending yet more money on something that they do not perveive as essential despite that it is. We may be able to live with nuclear energy, but that would require better planning regarding security and long term effects.

And putting new nuclear plants to work means more contamination; nuclear fuel is contaminating and there is no safe way to dispose of it, at least yet.

Yes, indeed. I would like to stress, however, that the problem is not this particular technology, but the fact that what comes cheap always costs more in the end. We want cheap energy and thus we want cheap nuclear energy. That is the problem, not the atom.

Some related bibliography for those interested in learning more about the nuclear industry:

Nuclear safety.

Nuclear physics.

Chernobyl in history.

Fusion+fission.

Nuclear weapons.

Some ways to decrease our need for nuclear and traditional sources of energy:

Solar and wind power how-tos.

How to build a dry cell to save fuel.

Obviamente tenemos que considerar también el caso de Fukushima, donde al parecer se ha ocultado parte de la verdad al público en función de los intereses del estado japonés y la industria nuclear.

Fukushima