U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has described China's world leadership on clean energy development as a "Sputnik moment" for the United States. Chu said "America still has the opportunity to lead in a world that will need essentially a new industrial revolution to give us the energy we want inexpensively but carbon-free...[b]ut I think time is running out." Of course, nuclear power is anything but inexpensive or quick to deploy -- and just as important as a carbon-free energy future, is a nuclear-free one.