New Leader Of UK's Green Party: Nuclear Power Is The Betamax Of The Energy World [View all]

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Last edited Sun Sep 30, 2012, 03:29 AM - Edit history (1)

We need to stop being distracted by this techology and focus on promoting and investing in renewables

Natalie Bennett
guardian.co.uk, Fri 28 Sep 2012 11.41 BST

In my first month as the new Green party leader, I've spent lots of time talking about pressing economic and social issues...

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So I think it is worth spending a little time talking about why nuclear power is the Betamax of the energy world - a technology that was briefly in the hunt, but now could be ready to fade away into a museum curiosity. And you don't have to just believe me on this - consider this recent front page from the Economist.

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First, it is immensely and unpredictably expensive. Even a group called Supporters of Nuclear Energy is now questioning the cost of nuclear to the UK. Paying £165/MWh for power from Hinkley Point would make new nuclear more costly than either onshore or offshore wind - a cost that would be felt in the pockets of millions of already hard-stretched British households.
The two European Pressurised Reactors, as proposed for Britain, now being built in Finland and France, are both already running four years behind their construction schedule, and at roughly double the original budget. The French National Audit Office recently recommended that the programme - the very one Britain is looking like signing up for - be abandoned.

Second, it is slow to build - very, very slow. The four new nuclear reactors built by EDF since 1990 have taken on average 14 years to completion and 17.5 years to come online. That's not nearly quick enough to meet Britain's needs, either for power or for emissions reduction.

Third, it is by its nature monopolistic. Enormously expensive and, technologically, immensely complicated, no community would be able to decide to install one even if they wanted to. Local communities aren't going to be able to install one to boost local education spending in the same way that a Scottish Green party councillor is suggesting with wind turbines in Aberdeenshire.

Fourth, it isn't renewable. Arguments are many and varied about the supplies of nuclear fuels and how long they might last, but whatever figures you accept, the fact is we're talking about a quite limited supply. But the wind and the sun are never going to run out - at least not in a time frame we have to worry about.

Full article with lots of embedded links: http://guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/sep/28/nuclear-power-betamax-energy-world?cat=environment&type=article