"If an earthquake of about 6 or larger occurs anywhere around the globe, every single sand grain dances on this planet." — Ross Stein, U.S. Geological Survey.

Amid the photos of collapsed houses, shattered roads and buckled bridges, the most arresting image out of Japan after last month's 6.8-magnitude earthquake was of black smoke billowing from an electrical transformer at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, near the epicenter. The plant has seven reactors and 8.2 million kilowatts of generating capacity, making it the world's largest nuclear facility.

Initially, officials said damage was confined to a small fire and a 300-gallon leak of water with negligible amounts of radioactivity. But that was followed by reports of toppled barrels of low-level nuclear waste. Then came word that Tokyo Electric may have unwittingly situated the plant atop an active seismic fault.

After a recent three-day examination of the plant, however, six international safety experts dispatched by the International Atomic Energy Agency reported better news. The July 16 earthquake exceeded the level of seismic activity the facility was designed to withstand, but the design still helped contain the damage. No one was hurt, and there was no measurable environmental fallout from the plant.

That's comforting for Japan, and good news for those who want to revive the nuclear energy industry in the U.S.

The United States has 104 operating reactors at 65 sites, providing roughly 20 percent of the country's energy needs, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

With energy consumption and concerns about global warming rising, more nuclear power is a must. It can be done efficiently, cost-effectively... and safely.

Before a plant is built in the U.S., extensive studies are done at the site to account for potential natural hazards. Plants in different areas are built to different codes, to account for the likelihood of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and other natural disasters.

"They're overdesigned," said David Wald of the U.S. Geological Survey. "They're very tough structures."

They had at one time also become prohibitively expensive structures. Unit 1 of the Watts Bar nuclear plant in Tennessee, the last nuclear reactor to go into service in the U.S., took 23 years to build and open and cost $6.2 billion. Though the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island stopped nuclear expansion, skyrocketing costs and endless construction delays already had started to cripple the industry.

The cost of nuclear power, however, is poised to come down, and its efficiency has been rising.

In mid-May, the Tennessee Valley Authority successfully rebuilt and restarted Unit 1 of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, a five-year, $1.8 billion effort that came in on time and on budget. The reactor, which went into service in 1974, was shut down in 1985 after a series of problems, including a fire. On Aug. 1, the TVA agreed to complete work on Unit 2 of Watts Bar, a project that was suspended in 1985. The TVA is approaching this project the same way it approached the restart of Browns Ferry's Unit 1, laying out a realistic construction timeline.

Construction also isn't expected to take as long as it once did. The Harris 1 reactor outside Raleigh, N.C., received a construction permit in 1978, but didn't receive its operating permit until 1987. By combining the planned construction and anticipated operation review into one, the fast-track licensing process instituted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to compress the normal time frame to four years. Construction on a plant could be finished in 36 months.

Inception to operation would take just seven years, meaning that new nuclear power plants could come online as early as 2015.

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last May that nuclear power, along with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, has to be in the mix of technologies to curb global warming.

Nuclear power is a safer industry, it is a more efficient industry, and it is critical to answering energy demands and protecting the environment. The U.S. can have faith in nuclear power.