If it is badly timed, I apologise, but I thought that the Japanese crisis must be fertile ground for a new issue, and so I decided to try my hand at one. If this is too soon, I will retract it. (Please note that the last option contains a logical fallacy: if I said that a head should come every two times a dice was thrown, that wouldn't mean after one tail you would expect a head.)
Name: A Critical Issue
Description: An unexpected meteor strike has caused massive damage to Northern @@NAME@@, including the destabilization of one of the nation's oldest nuclear reactors. Crisis has been averted, but both the situation of the surrounding area and the status of nuclear power has come under question. The citizens of @@NAME@@ are demanding an answer from their government.
Validity: Not valid for nations that have banned nuclear power and not produced nuclear weaponry.
[option] "This disaster only demonstrates how the tyranny of nuclear power must end now!" shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@, the representative of a loose coalition of teenage environmentalists and concerned housewives, through a rather unneccesary megaphone, given they are standing in your office, "Every day, we become more reliant on an energy resource that might just as well be a ticking doomsday device. Not only that, but we have to bury nuclear poisons deep in our soils to keep it running, while every day more public money lines the pockets of corrupt and obviously ineffective "supervisors". This rare and isolated incident has clearly demonstrated that we should abandon this powerful monster forever."
[effect] solar plants and windmills litter @@NAME@@ where once a few lonely nuclear reactors stood
[stats] economy contracts, taxes rise, infrastructure spending rises, corruption falls very slightly, economic freedoms fall a little, safety falls very slightly, uranium mining ceases to exist as an industry, deaths due to radiation fall to almost nothing
[option] "@@LEADER@@, you are taking precisely the wrong approach to this!" exclaims @@NAME@@, the CEO of an international energy conglomerate, jumping up from his chair, "Are you going to cave to a bunch of soccer-moms and potheads without a jot of business sense dictate national policy? Nuclear power is not only highly cost-efficient, but actually safer than conventional fossil fuels or even these newfangled "green" technologies; over our lifetime, more people will die falling off windmills than nuclear disasters, I promise! This reactor failed precisely because the market was overburdened with the kind of regulations these fools would bring us: if it weren't for the overburdened and tired state of nuclear power in @@NAME@@, why would consumers ever buy energy from a reactor clearly on its last legs? If we want to avoid these accidents again, we must open up @@NAME@@'s energy market to the revolutionising forces of the free market and my company!"
[effect] @@NAME@@ recently sold off a set of badly-administered, highly volatile nuclear reactors to a set of foreign investors
[stats] economy grows, taxes fall, infrastructure spending falls, social inequality rises, corruption rises very slightly, economic freedoms rise, safety falls very slightly, uranium mining grows as an industry, deaths due to radiation rise slightly, government size falls somewhat
[option] "Are you crazy? We can't do that!" screams your public relations advisor, @@RANDOMNAME@@, pulling their rapidly-greying hair out and sighing, "Handing over our power plants to money-grubbing foreigners - as the public see them - in a time of crisis will leave us politically decimated. At the same time, we can't stop relying on nuclear power entirely. It is safe and efficient. It'd be madness to abandon it. At the very least, what we can do is make a show of regulating our existing plants to reassure the public this will never happen again. To stop the fears about spreading radiation, we'll close off the area in a 50 kilometre radius around the damaged plant. It's the least we can do."
[effect] @@NAME@@'s government is taking measures which seem tough on radiation exposure from nuclear reactors and have nearly no consequences
[stats] economy shrinks a bit, taxes rise a bit, health spending rises slightly, economic freedoms fall slightly, government size grows slightly, corruption rises, safety rises very slightly, uranium mining contracts slightly as an industry, deaths from radiation fall slightly, deaths from exposure and malnutrition rise
[option] "Sir - we are missing the fundamental issue here," says Colonel @@RANDOMNAME@@, a person known for their no-nonsense attitude and percieved lack of sympathy, "Closing the area would condemn people to death. Winter is setting in, and so is starvation. The truth is, disasters happen and people die. But if we do not act now, thousands more will. The aftermath of this meteor strike has been far more than one destablised reactor. We must quickly send a massive relief effort, dispatching food, fuel and basic healthcare to those who now need it the most. Other issues can wait."
[effect] faintly-glowing military convoys are being dispatched to clear the aftermath of a devastating meteor strike
[stats] taxes rise, health, military and social welfare spending rise a bit, safety fall slightly, deaths from radiation rise slightly, while deaths from exposure and malnutrition fall
[option] "Nein! You are missing ze fundamental issue, my friend!" states author of "The Cosmic Soup and You", @@RANDOMNAME@@, nervously adjusting his fancy-dress labcoat and exagerrated safety-goggles, "Critical asteroids strike our planet nearly every fifty million years, and it has nearly been...ah! Fifty million years since the last strike which destroyed a whole genus! Our time has come! But! If we erect a series of huge satellites in space, primed with huge missiles to destroy any oncoming spatial debris, we might survive by destroying the missiles before zey reach ze Earth! Agh!"
[effect] @@NAME@@'s neighbours are worried by recently released plans to put a series of huge missiles in space to destroy oncoming "asteroids"
[stats] taxes soar, defence spending rises, economy contracts, government size rises, uranium mining grows as an industry slightly
