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It’s been well over a year since the explosion and fire on the BP-licensed Transocean drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. It led to the death of 11 workers and a total of 4.4m barrels of oil being released into the ocean during the first three months of the leak.

Ok so a cynic might say that this is an old news story but, like most environmental problems, it would appear that it isn’t going to go away with one well positioned speech or change of CEO.

An expected estimated total cost of $40bn was set aside for reparations and clean-up operations, $7.7bn more than previously expected after initial reports. However Ken Feinberg, the administrator of BP’s remuneration fund, has only paid out $7.9bn in emergency claims over Gulf of Mexico oil spill from a $20bn fund specifically set aside.

Where were the marches in the streets? The green activists? Wall to wall articles claiming that BP had slicked their way out of another spill? Was the protest at the AGM last week the most that could be mustered?

Well it’s been a busy year for Mother Nature. Forest fires; tsunamis and earthquakes have shaken the globe into the realisation that we are just guests here and to stop rubbing our muddy feet on the carpet if we want to stick around. Most notably, the recent seismic activity in Japan has reopened an old wound and taken the heat off BP – is nuclear power a safe alternative?

Nuclear’s image has certainly received a bit of a bashing, not just for the way that cost cutting can lead to catastrophic consequences, but for its use in favour of other renewable methods. Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union at the time of the Chernobyl disaster and now head of the environment group Green Cross International, claims that, “the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ has hitched a free ride on the back of the need to find low-carbon solutions to the climate crisis. The bottom line on the economics of nuclear power is that it simply does not add up.” With fresh headlines like “Japan nuke crisis raised to max” (The Sun, 12.04.11), it’s no wonder the majority of the industry, including most of the general population, are becoming sceptical about the reliability of this energy source. Indeed, the latest reports don’t see the problem going away for at least another nine months, so what does this mean for the world’s opinion of this supposedly ‘clean’ energy?

Nuclear supporters, both journalists and scientific experts – with the exception of George Monbiot, seem to have taken a big back seat through all of this. Whilst its reputation is put through the washer, other renewable energy companies are lining up to talk to the media.

BP on the other hand, despite Tony Hayward’s best efforts to sabotage their share price with quotes like “I just want my life back….I’m off to go sailing with my son” (cue the PRO putting head in hands in the background) have been rather intelligent with their publicity. Each spill (there were thirteen by various companies in 2010) is carefully handled by various PR teams around the world, professionally showing what their firm is doing to help the environment and promoting their investment programmes in alternative fuel. In comparison, the Chernobyl meltdown in the Ukraine was only discovered when a massive cloud of radiation was seen moving across most of Europe. I fear Japan, although nowhere near as serious, may be taking the same approach when it comes to engaging their nuclear stakeholders.

Oil, to summarise all the wonderful contraptions it powers, makes our tanks move and our jets fly. Unless there’s a plutonium powered gamma ray truck out there that I don’t know about (the child in me can only hope…) and as long as new oil fields keep being discovered, then the reputation of nuclear energy is always going to be cast into the shadows of oil’s seemingly invincible black suit of armour.