Requirements for nuclear energy in the 21st century nuclear energy as a sustainable energy source

Nuclear energy must compete against other energy technologies in the 21st century. It must be economical and it must be proven that it fulfills the conditions for sutainability. This means that the requirements of — no short term depletion of resources — extremely low emission of noxious or radioactive substances to the environment — extremely low release of radioactivity from a nuclear plant in case of the most severe accidents and — the present very long term problem of high active waste must be transformed into a few hundred years problem through destruction of plutonium, transmutation of the minor actinides and the most important very long lived fission products.