While millions of Americans are questioning the strength and security of the nation's power plants, two New Mexicans prominent in the field are looking ahead at the future of nuclear power. Dick Peebles is a Cambridge-trained nuclear physicist who spent four decades in the nuclear power industry in the United Kingdom. He retired to New Mexico, where he is board president for the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. He foresees a period of reflection in the aftermath of the Fukushima crisis, but also a time of action. "I think we may see specific actions to address weaknesses," said Peebles. "For example, any reactor that's near and earthquake center and where it's vulnerable to a tsunami." To Peebles, that is the cause of the Japanese disaster—not nuclear power itself.
