If Nuclear Power is
the answer, it must have been a pretty stupid question...
What kind of Quality of Life are we Creating?
This is an excerpt taken from an article
written by Professor Ian Lowe. Ian Lowe is Emeritus Professor of
Science, Technology and Society at Griffith University, Brisbane.
One of Australia’s
best-known environmental scientists, he is president of the Australian
Conservation Foundation.
He recently joined Senator Bob Brown in public discussions
regarding sustaining true quality of life on our planet, at the
recent Woodford Folk Festival, both men received standing ovations
at the end of each session. Support for their continued efforts
in the political and educational arenas was unanimously applauded.
“The debate about nuclear energy is a welcome recognition
of the urgent need to respond to climate change. I welcome that
awareness and the resulting debate, but the nuclear option is not
a wise response. It is too costly, too dangerous, too slow and
makes too little impact on greenhouse pollution. That is why most
of the developed world is rejecting the nuclear option in favour
of renewable energy and improved efficiency.
There is no serious doubt that the climate change is real; it is
happening now and its effects are accelerating. It is already causing
serious economic impact such as reduced agricultural production,
increased costs of severe events such as fires and storms, and
the need to consider radical water-supply measures such as desalination
plants. So we should set a serious target for reducing our rate
of releasing carbon dioxide, like Britain’s goal of 60 per
cent by 2050. The Australian policy vacuum is a failure of moral
leadership and also an uncertain investment framework.
The economics of nuclear power just don’t stack up. The real
cost of nuclear electricity is certainly more than for wind power,
energy from bio-wastes and some forms of solar energy. Geothermal
energy from hot dry rocks also promises to be less costly than
nuclear.
That is without including the huge costs of decommissioning
power reactors and storing the radioactive waste. So there is no
economic case for nuclear power. As energy markets have liberalized
around the world, investors have turned their backs on nuclear
energy. The number of reactors in western Europe and the United
States peaked 15 years ago and has been declining since.
By contrast,
the amount of wind power and solar energy is rising at rates of
20 to 30 per cent a year.
Reducing energy waste is the cheapest and most immediate way to
reduce greenhouse pollution. For instance, more than 10 percent
of household electricity is used by keeping appliances such as
TV’s, stereos and videoplayers on stand-by.
Nuclear power is too dangerous - not just the risk of accident
such as Chernobyl, but the increased risk of nuclear weapons or
nuclear terrorism. It remains the case, as the Ranger Inquiry found
nearly 30 years ago, that increased export of Australian uranium
would contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear power also inevitably produces radioactive waste that will
have to be stored safely for hundreds of thousands of years. After
nearly 50 years of the nuclear power experiment, nobody has yet
demonstrated a solution, expanding the rate of waste production
is just irresponsible.
Nuclear power will not stop climate change. The argument that it
would reduce greenhouse pollution presumes high-grade uranium ores
are available. Even with such high-grade ores, there is a massive
increase in greenhouse pollution from mining, processing and reactor
construction before any electricity is generated.
The known resources
of high-grade uranium ores only amount to a few decades’ use
at present rate, so an expansion of nuclear power would see this
high grade ore depleted and therefore larger quantities of lower
grade ore would have to be mined.
To avoid dangerous self-created changes to our climate, we need
to act now. We should make a commitment to the sensible alternative
that produce sustainable cost-effective reductions in greenhouse
pollution: wind power, solar water-heating, energy efficiency,
gas and energy from organic matter such as sewage and waste.” (for
more information go to www.acfonline.org.au)
"My religion is to have
nothing
to be ashamed of when I die." Milarepa
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