Clearly, from the above preceding discussion of nuclear power plant issues, nuclear energy cannot be considered an apparent solution to any problem, whereas it has a history of being the source of many further problems. Also, the electrical energy industry is aware of the substantial drawbacks of nuclear power generation. Nevertheless this industry is now spending an incredible amount of money and time, lobbying for the revival of nuclear energy. The main interest of the owners of existing nuclear power plants is however to prolong the life-span for existing nuclear plants. Because the existing plants will be amortized at the end of their originally planned life time, huge financial profits can be realized for any day longer which these plants can be kept in operation. This is much more lucrative than building new nuclear plants however, to operate nuclear power plants longer than originally planned can be quite dangerous since any plant or technical appliance usually starts to fail towards the end of its planned life expectancy.
Nuclear power plants incite our greatest hopes and deepest fears for the future. While atomic energy offers a clean energy alternative that frees us from the shackles of fossil fuel dependence, it summons images of disaster: quake-ruptured Japanese power plants emitting radioactive steam, and the dead zone surrounding Chernobyl's concrete sarcophagus. Plants such as Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi facility, Russia's Chernobyl and the United States' Three Mile Island will forever haunt the nuclear power industry, often diminishing some of the environmental advantages that nuclear technology has to offer.