After 2000
In the 21st century, the label of the "Atomic Age" connotes either a sense of nostalgia or naïveté, and is considered by many to have ended with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, though the term continues to be used by some historians to describe the era following the conclusion of the Second World War. The term is used by some science fiction fans to describe not only the era following the conclusion of the Second World War but also contemporary history up to the present day.
Nuclear technology was originally suggested as a solution to the oil crisis that threatens the world's supply of energy, and has been offered as a solution to global warming.
The nuclear power industry has improved the safety and performance of reactors, and has proposed new safer (but generally untested) reactor designs but there is no guarantee that the reactors will be designed, built and operated correctly. Mistakes do occur and the designers of reactors at Fukushima in Japan did not anticipate that a tsunami generated by an earthquake would disable the backup systems that were supposed to stabilize the reactor after the earthquake. According to UBS AG, the Fukushima I nuclear accidents have cast doubt on whether even an advanced economy like Japan can master nuclear safety. Catastrophic scenarios involving terrorist attacks are also conceivable. An interdisciplinary team from MIT has estimated that if nuclear power use tripled from 2005–2055 (from 2% to 7%), at least four serious nuclear accidents would be expected in that period.
In September 2012, Japan announced that it would completely phase out nuclear power by 2030, joining with Germany, and other countries in reaction to the accident at Fukushima. It will be many decades before the radioactive legacy of the aborted atomic age will be removed.
While the atomic age began with the explosion of a test bomb, the duck and cover age is long past, but risk of nuclear explosion will continue until the last nuclear weapon is dismantled. Nuclear power, in hindsight, has four unsurmontable problems, radiation, waste, accident, and the risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons.
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