Last week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met to discuss how their nuclear scientists could work together developing nuclear power technology to export and license around the world in an effort to reduce greenhouse gases. Yeah, nuclear power does have zero emissions, but you know what else does too? Solar and wind and geothermal. And we'd like to see a terrorist try and turn a windmill into a weapon of mass destruction.

Ah yes, nuclear power: If there's an issue that divides even us EnviroWonks, this is it. We certainly admire the passion on both sides. Best example: Women in Finland threatened not to make any babies for four years if the government went through constructing a new reactor (The Finnish government called their bluff).

France gets about 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy, while the UK generates about 20 percent. But British Business Secretary John Hutton is trying to frame the increase as an economic boon, explaining that replacing the UK's 23 reactors alone will generate £20 billion for British businesses. Know what else will boost GDP? Cleaning up after a meltdown, but we digress.

Hutton, in a dismissal of facts that would impress Dick Cheney, brushed off concerns about nuclear waste disposal, explaining "I do not think there's a long-term argument about how it should be done. There's an argument about where it should be done, but the how is pretty well clear now. It will be a combination of on-site storage pending the establishment and creation of new geological depositories. That's the path that most other countries have taken. I think it's the path that we should take." We're not sure which countries he's talking about, but it sure isn't the U.S.

Critics of the plan say that it'll take too long for the reactors to be built to help anyone in the EU meet their proposed CO2 reductions. They point out that one of the few power plants under construction in Europe -- a facility in Finland that began construction 2.5 years ago, is two years behind schedule and so far costs more than 30 percent of what was projected.

Perhaps in an effort to take some of the glare off their spotlight, the day after the Brown/Sarkozy meeting a top British nuclear official leaked the news of the U.S.'s intention to build the first new plant in the U.S. in 30 years. Three permits for a nuclear plant construction have been filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and are expected to be approved soon. That doesn't mean anything will be built anytime soon, but we suggest you start planning your means of non-violent protest. Like the baby thing in Finland.

We'd also like to take this opportunity to give the peace sign a shout out for it's 50th anniversary. Although it was commandeered by hippies in the late 1960s, it was created by a British dude looking for a simple symbol for the fledgling nuclear disarmament movement, by superimposing the semaphore (aka sign language with flags) gestures for N and D inside a circle.