ABSTRACT
The environmental movement begun as an emotional appeal from affected residents and concerned analysts. The methods of spatial assessment and impact mitigation have evolved rapidly in the last decade in response to changes in the nuclear industry. The literature on spatial assessment of nuclear energy is dominated by a preoccupation with the siting and public acceptance of individual power plants. To a large extent the hyperbolic cooling tower has become the visual and perceptual tip of the nuclear iceberg. Public opposition has focused on the reactors and associated cooling towers with a special concern for safety and environmental impacts, but the nuclear fuel cycle involves other equally imposing facilities for mining, enrichment, transportation and final disposition. Nuclear power will be reevaluated along with solar and other emerging technologies, but the new assessments will have to include scenarios of energy deprivation as well.
