In a sweeping move to win Republicans and moderate Democrats on energy legislation, US President Barack Obama has recently endorsed nuclear power with revised vigour. In his State of the Union address, Obama outlined the next budget year for the US to include billions more dollars in support of new nuclear reactors.

Despite deep-set concerns over radioactive waste, Obama's administration has refocused its tentative outlook on nuclear power to concentrate on a White House priority - climate and energy legislation. Such reaffirmations have been set in state planning to provide a growing number of 'clean' energy jobs to neighbouring districts.

US spokesmen have addressed Obama's actions as reflecting his long term support of nuclear power. However, there has been considerable pressure on the White House for not exploring the viable role nuclear energy and its existing infrastructure can play in mitigating global warming.

Presently, there are over one hundred nuclear reactors in operation, providing around 20 per cent of US electricity. But the potential of nuclear energy and its operating success in pollution-free power sources outweighs even some of the more esteemed favourites, such as wind power, solar and hydroelectric dams. Nuclear energy contributes 70 per cent of power in this field. And US senators are ever-more aware of these potentials.

Nuclear power generation in the US has proved to be a remarkably safe and reliable form of power generation since its first sites came online. However, in order to ensure that nuclear power can act as a viable source of energy for the US and other global markets, engineers and not scientists have got their work cut out for them. It is less with the technology of nuclear power rather than with the constructability of nuclear units throughout the US that need to be addressed.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, for instance, plans to see 100 plants built over the next 20 years. This is not unrealistic according to the Environmental Protection Agency who, after recent surveys, postulate 180 new reactors would be supporting the US energy grid by 2050.

As with any national plans to fully integrate a modified - and by all means advanced - method of generating power, the changes made to the face of American power industries will be vast and demanding. And this has evidently been acknowledge by White House planners.

Even Obama himself has changed the course of his rhetoric to suit forthcoming advancements. He said last week:

"Up until now, the administration has been pursuing a national windmill policy instead of a national energy policy, which is the military equivalent of going to war in sail boats."

Brook Buchana, a spokeswoman for Sen. John McCain, has stated that the senator was enthused by the President's momentum, but also highlighted some of the potential quandaries facing the current administration.

McCain, who criticised Obama's standing on nuclear power throughout the 2008 campaign, remains, along with a large number of state senators, unclear as to whether or not the President receives full backing at this time in present. Industry talks are set to clarify some of the next steps over the oncoming months.

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