For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Politics and Democracy page, Breaking the Chains page, and our Fair Trade page.

Despite the trouble with Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant following that country’s devastating earthquake, Microsoft co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates still hasn’t given up on nuclear power.

In a conversation with Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson today at the magazine’s third annual Business Conference, Gates said that one of the best aspects of nuclear power at the moment is its lack of innovation thus far, which leaves it ripe for disruption in the coming years.

When it comes to Japan’s current nuclear trouble, Gates pointed out that the Fukushima plant is an older second-generation reactor. Third-generation plants, as well as upcoming fourth-generation plants (which he’s also invested in), can easily avoid most of Fukushima’s problems – primarily because they have better ways of dealing with the afterheat that results after a nuclear plant shuts down. One third-gen design keeps a pool of water ready in the case of a plant shutdown, while fourth-gen designs have methods in place to avoid the afterheat problem completely.