General Debate: Going Nuclear? 

How are we going to provide for our energy needs in a way that does not destroy, via global warming, the capacity of our planet to support life? 

Going nuclear CAN be part of the answer 

We are no longer living in the 1970s. Today, the world is more threatened even than it was during the Cold War. Only this time nuclear power Ð instead of being part of the problem Ð can be part of the solution. 

We are no longer living in the 1970s. Today, the world is more threatened even than it was during the Cold War. Only this time nuclear power Ð instead of being part of the problem Ð can be part of the solution. 

One way of statistically assessing the safety of nuclear power versus other technologies is to use the measure of deaths per gigawatt-year. This technique is cited by Cambridge University s Professor David MacKay in his book Sustainable Energy Ð Without the Hot Air (available free on the web), and shows that in Europe, nuclear and wind power are the safest technologies (about 0.1 death per GWy), while oil, coal and biomass the most dangerous (above 1 per GWy)(10). 

10) David McKay, Sustainable Energy Ð without the hot air, Part 2, Making a difference, p174.  

The hard truth is that if nuclear power is not at least part of the answer, then answering that challenge is going to be very difficult indeed. 

Going nuclear CANNOT be taken in consideration 

The high price for nuclear waste disposal and decommissioning Ð with a hefty chunk always payable from public funds Ð is surely one of the environmental lobby s strongest arguments, particularly if any subsidy from taxpayers means taking money away from investment in renewables. 

Helen Caldicott s book Nuclear Power is Not the Answer discusses the finances of nuclear under a chapter subheaded -Socialised Electricity-, quoting figures for nuclearÕs subsidy in the US over recent decades of 70bn dollars. To make a direct cost comparison, the International Energy Agency in a 2005 study looked at life-cycle costs for all power sources Ð including construction costs, operations, fuel and decommissioning Ð and concluded that nuclear was the cheapest option, followed by coal, wind and gas(11). 

IEA, Projected costs of generating electricity Ð 2005 update.  

The UK s Sustainable Development Commission, in its 2006 report on nuclear power, argued that new plants should be ruled out until the existing waste problem could be solved 

SDC, Is nuclear the answer?  

Why does the nuclear issue evoke very strong reactions?  

Being anti-nuclear is an article of faith (and I use that word intentionally) for many people in todayÕs environmental movement and beyond, just as it was during the 1970s. That the Green Party, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have held the same position on the subject for 30 years could show admirable consistency Ð but it could also be evidence of dogmatic closed-mindedness. 

For answers, I think we need to look to nuclearÕs past, when today s entrenched positions were first formed. Civil nuclear power began life as a heavily state-subsidised industry largely designed to produce plutonium for bombs. Civil nuclear power was part of the military-industrial complex and shrouded in secrecy. An association with the mushroom cloud has tainted the nuclear industry ever since Ð and clearly continues to be an issue in countries such as Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. 

There is radiation. Most people are terrified of radiation precisely because it is invisible, making it all the more threatening, and because of its potential to cause cancer and genetic deformities. (Many other cancer-causing agents such as food or smoke seem innocuous by comparison.) Nuclear accidents and near-meltdowns Ð such as Three Mile Island in 1979 Ð provoke scary headlines throughout the media, as did popular treatments such as the film The China Syndrome (released, by an extraordinary stroke of luck for the film-makers, just 12 days before Three Mile Island), in which a sinister nuclear cabal covers up evidence of an accident. 

It is undeniable that nuclear fission generates radioactive by-products, some of which will inevitably enter the environment. It is also undeniable that exposure to radiation increases the risk of cancer (though radiation can also be employed to treat cancers). 

But it is the level of risk that counts, and here the story is less fearsome than many would have us believe. Take Three Mile Island, which exposed local populations to one millirem of radiation on average(1). This equates to roughly what we all receive from natural sources (cosmic rays and naturally occurring radioactive elements in the ground) every four days(2). The number of deaths from Three Mile Island Ð the worst civil nuclear accident ever in a western country, and one that ended the US nuclear programme (not a single reactor has been built since) Ð is therefore officially estimated to be zero(3). 

(1) United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Fact Sheet on the Three Mile Island Accident 

(2) Chapter 5 in -The Nuclear Energy Option- by Bernard Cohen, 1990 

(3) United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Fact Sheet on the Three Mile Island Accident,  

Chernobyl, surely the worst-imaginable case for a nuclear disaster, was far less deadly than most people think. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, 28 people died due to acute radiation sickness(4) Ð all firemen and power plant workers, some of whom had been exposed to radiation doses as high as one million millirems(5). By comparison, 167 men were killed during the Piper Alpha disaster on a North Sea oil rig in 1988. But it is the long-term effects from Chernobyl that tend to scare people most. In a 2006 report, Greenpeace claimed that -60,000 people have additionally died in Russia because of the Chernobyl accident, and estimates of the total death toll for the Ukraine and Belarus could reach another 140,000-(6). These figures, if correct, would make Chernobyl one of the worst single man-made disasters of the last century.  

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation reports 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer in children and young people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, but very few deaths (thyroid cancer is mostly treatable). Indeed, it concludes, -There is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident-, and no evidence of any increase in cancer or leukaemia among exposed populations 

Reference: -The Chernobyl Accident: UNSCEAR s assessments of the radiation effects-,  

The World Health Organisation concludes that while a few thousand deaths may be caused over the next 70 years by ChernobylÕs radioactive release, this number -will be indiscernible from the background of overall deaths in the large population group- 

Reference: World Health Organisation, -Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programmes-, 2006 

Without wishing to downplay the tragedy for the victims Ð especially the 300,000 people who were evacuated permanently Ð the explosion has even been good for wildlife, which has thrived in the 30km exclusion zone 

Reference: National Geographic News, April 26, 2006: -Despite mutations, Chernobyl wildlife is thriving- 

Why not ditch nuclear and focus only on renewables, as the greens suggest? 

MacKay calculates that even if we covered the windiest 10 per cent of the UK with wind turbines, put solar panels on all south-facing roofs, implemented strong energy efficiency measures across the economy, built offshore wind turbines across an area of sea two-thirds the size of Wales, and fully exploited every other conceivable source of renewables (including wave and tidal power), energy production would still not match current consumption(13). 

David McKay-Sustainable Energy Ð without the hot air..pdf 

What if a new generation of nuclear plants could be designed that, instead of producing more waste to leave as a toxic legacy for our grandchildren, actually generated energy by burning up existing waste stockpiles? 

SDC, Is nuclear the answer?  

The solution proposed by Tom Blees, a US-based writer, in his upcoming book Prescription for the Planet(15) focuses particularly on so-called fourth-generation nuclear technology Ð better known as fast-breeder reactors. While conventional thermal reactors use less than 1 per cent of the potential energy in their uranium fuel, fast-breeders are 60 times more efficient, and can burn virtually all of the energy available in the uranium ore. 

Fourth-generation nuclear technology is also inherently safer than earlier designs. The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR), discussed at length by Blees, operates at atmospheric pressure, reducing the possibility of leaks and loss-of-coolant accidents. It is also designed to be -walk-away safe-, meaning that if all operators stood up and left, the reactor would shut itself down automatically rather than overheat and suffer a meltdown. 

Tom Blees, 2008: Prescription for the Planet Ð The painless remedy for our energy and environmental crises  

This gives these fourth-generation reactors a big advantage. As Blees puts it: -Thus we have a prodigious supply of free fuel that is actually even better than free, for it is material that we are quite desperate to get rid of.- Moreover, fast-breeder reactors can also run on the -depleted- uranium left behind by conventional reactors, and help reduce the proliferation threat by burning up plutonium stockpiles left over from decommissioned nuclear weapons. 

Tom Blees, 2008: Prescription for the Planet Ð The painless remedy for our energy and environmental crises  

Tom Blees, 2008: Prescription for the Planet Ð The painless remedy for our energy and environmental crises  

Blees estimates that supplies of nuclear waste and depleted uranium are sufficient to -provide all the power needs of the entire planet for hundreds of years before we need to mine any more uranium-. Although these reactors produce plutonium Ð which might be used for nuclear weapons, and could therefore pose a proliferation threat Ð weapons-grade material is never isolated in the fuel-cycle process, making fast-breeders less dangerous to international stability than conventional reactors, and relatively simple to inspect. 

Tom Blees, 2008: Prescription for the Planet Ð The painless remedy for our energy and environmental crises  

What about the waste that nuclear reactors produce? 

The solution proposed by Tom Blees, a US-based writer, in his upcoming book Prescription for the Planet(15) focuses particularly on so-called fourth-generation nuclear technology Ð better known as fast-breeder reactors. While conventional thermal reactors use less than 1 per cent of the potential energy in their uranium fuel, fast-breeders are 60 times more efficient, and can burn virtually all of the energy available in the uranium ore. 

Fourth-generation nuclear technology is also inherently safer than earlier designs. The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR), discussed at length by Blees, operates at atmospheric pressure, reducing the possibility of leaks and loss-of-coolant accidents. It is also designed to be -walk-away safe-, meaning that if all operators stood up and left, the reactor would shut itself down automatically rather than overheat and suffer a meltdown. 

This gives these fourth-generation reactors a big advantage. As Blees puts it: -Thus we have a prodigious supply of free fuel that is actually even better than free, for it is material that we are quite desperate to get rid of.- Moreover, fast-breeder reactors can also run on the -depleted- uranium left behind by conventional reactors, and help reduce the proliferation threat by burning up plutonium stockpiles left over from decommissioned nuclear weapons. 

Blees estimates that supplies of nuclear waste and depleted uranium are sufficient to -provide all the power needs of the entire planet for hundreds of years before we need to mine any more uranium-. Although these reactors produce plutonium Ð which might be used for nuclear weapons, and could therefore pose a proliferation threat Ð weapons-grade material is never isolated in the fuel-cycle process, making fast-breeders less dangerous to international stability than conventional reactors, and relatively simple to inspect. 

Since the by-products of fast-breeder reactors are highly radioactive, they have much shorter half-lives Ð rendering them inert in a couple of centuries, instead of the longer time over which conventional nuclear waste remains dangerous. 

How long high-level waste from reactors remains dangerous? 

Since the by-products of fast-breeder reactors are highly radioactive, they have much shorter half-lives Ð rendering them inert in a couple of centuries, instead of the longer time over which conventional nuclear waste remains dangerous. 

Greenpeace states that -waste will remain dangerous for up to a million years-(16) 

Greenpeace: Nuclear power Ð the problems  

All waste will have decayed back to a level of radio activity less than the original uranium ore in less than a thousand years.)(17) 

World Nuclear Association: Radioactive Wastes, see figure Decay in radioactivity of high-level waste 

All waste will have decayed back to a level of radio activity less than the original uranium ore in less than a thousand years.)(17) 

World Nuclear Association: Radioactive Wastes, see figure Decay in radioactivity of high-level waste 

Why, given the purported advantages in safety and fuel use, have fast-breeders not been developed commercially?  

Fourth-generation nuclear technology is also inherently safer than earlier designs. The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR), discussed at length by Blees, operates at atmospheric pressure, reducing the possibility of leaks and loss-of-coolant accidents. It is also designed to be -walk-away safe-, meaning that if all operators stood up and left, the reactor would shut itself down automatically rather than overheat and suffer a meltdown. 

This gives these fourth-generation reactors a big advantage. As Blees puts it: -Thus we have a prodigious supply of free fuel that is actually even better than free, for it is material that we are quite desperate to get rid of.- Moreover, fast-breeder reactors can also run on the -depleted- uranium left behind by conventional reactors, and help reduce the proliferation threat by burning up plutonium stockpiles left over from decommissioned nuclear weapons. 

Blees estimates that supplies of nuclear waste and depleted uranium are sufficient to -provide all the power needs of the entire planet for hundreds of years before we need to mine any more uranium-. Although these reactors produce plutonium Ð which might be used for nuclear weapons, and could therefore pose a proliferation threat Ð weapons-grade material is never isolated in the fuel-cycle process, making fast-breeders less dangerous to international stability than conventional reactors, and relatively simple to inspect. 

The US Integral Fast Reactor programme was shut down in 1994, possibly Ð Blees suggests Ð because of political pressure levied on the Clinton administration by anti-nuclear campaigners. 

How about nuclear power s potential contribution to mitigating global warming?  

Going nuclear CAN be part of the answer 

We are no longer living in the 1970s. Today, the world is more threatened even than it was during the Cold War. Only this time nuclear power Ð instead of being part of the problem Ð can be part of the solution. 

We are no longer living in the 1970s. Today, the world is more threatened even than it was during the Cold War. Only this time nuclear power Ð instead of being part of the problem Ð can be part of the solution. 

One way of statistically assessing the safety of nuclear power versus other technologies is to use the measure of deaths per gigawatt-year. This technique is cited by Cambridge University s Professor David MacKay in his book Sustainable Energy Ð Without the Hot Air (available free on the web), and shows that in Europe, nuclear and wind power are the safest technologies (about 0.1 death per GWy), while oil, coal and biomass the most dangerous (above 1 per GWy)(10). 

10) David McKay, Sustainable Energy Ð without the hot air, Part 2, Making a difference, p174.  

The hard truth is that if nuclear power is not at least part of the answer, then answering that challenge is going to be very difficult indeed. 

Going nuclear CANNOT be taken in consideration 

The high price for nuclear waste disposal and decommissioning Ð with a hefty chunk always payable from public funds Ð is surely one of the environmental lobby s strongest arguments, particularly if any subsidy from taxpayers means taking money away from investment in renewables. 

Helen Caldicott s book Nuclear Power is Not the Answer discusses the finances of nuclear under a chapter subheaded -Socialised Electricity-, quoting figures for nuclearÕs subsidy in the US over recent decades of 70bn dollars. To make a direct cost comparison, the International Energy Agency in a 2005 study looked at life-cycle costs for all power sources Ð including construction costs, operations, fuel and decommissioning Ð and concluded that nuclear was the cheapest option, followed by coal, wind and gas(11). 

IEA, Projected costs of generating electricity Ð 2005 update.  

The UK s Sustainable Development Commission, in its 2006 report on nuclear power, argued that new plants should be ruled out until the existing waste problem could be solved 

SDC, Is nuclear the answer?  

Why does the nuclear issue evoke very strong reactions?  

Being anti-nuclear is an article of faith (and I use that word intentionally) for many people in todayÕs environmental movement and beyond, just as it was during the 1970s. That the Green Party, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have held the same position on the subject for 30 years could show admirable consistency Ð but it could also be evidence of dogmatic closed-mindedness. 

For answers, I think we need to look to nuclearÕs past, when today s entrenched positions were first formed. Civil nuclear power began life as a heavily state-subsidised industry largely designed to produce plutonium for bombs. Civil nuclear power was part of the military-industrial complex and shrouded in secrecy. An association with the mushroom cloud has tainted the nuclear industry ever since Ð and clearly continues to be an issue in countries such as Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. 

There is radiation. Most people are terrified of radiation precisely because it is invisible, making it all the more threatening, and because of its potential to cause cancer and genetic deformities. (Many other cancer-causing agents such as food or smoke seem innocuous by comparison.) Nuclear accidents and near-meltdowns Ð such as Three Mile Island in 1979 Ð provoke scary headlines throughout the media, as did popular treatments such as the film The China Syndrome (released, by an extraordinary stroke of luck for the film-makers, just 12 days before Three Mile Island), in which a sinister nuclear cabal covers up evidence of an accident. 

It is undeniable that nuclear fission generates radioactive by-products, some of which will inevitably enter the environment. It is also undeniable that exposure to radiation increases the risk of cancer (though radiation can also be employed to treat cancers). 

But it is the level of risk that counts, and here the story is less fearsome than many would have us believe. Take Three Mile Island, which exposed local populations to one millirem of radiation on average(1). This equates to roughly what we all receive from natural sources (cosmic rays and naturally occurring radioactive elements in the ground) every four days(2). The number of deaths from Three Mile Island Ð the worst civil nuclear accident ever in a western country, and one that ended the US nuclear programme (not a single reactor has been built since) Ð is therefore officially estimated to be zero(3). 

(1) United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Fact Sheet on the Three Mile Island Accident 

(2) Chapter 5 in -The Nuclear Energy Option- by Bernard Cohen, 1990 

(3) United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Fact Sheet on the Three Mile Island Accident,  

Chernobyl, surely the worst-imaginable case for a nuclear disaster, was far less deadly than most people think. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, 28 people died due to acute radiation sickness(4) Ð all firemen and power plant workers, some of whom had been exposed to radiation doses as high as one million millirems(5). By comparison, 167 men were killed during the Piper Alpha disaster on a North Sea oil rig in 1988. But it is the long-term effects from Chernobyl that tend to scare people most. In a 2006 report, Greenpeace claimed that -60,000 people have additionally died in Russia because of the Chernobyl accident, and estimates of the total death toll for the Ukraine and Belarus could reach another 140,000-(6). These figures, if correct, would make Chernobyl one of the worst single man-made disasters of the last century.  

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation reports 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer in children and young people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, but very few deaths (thyroid cancer is mostly treatable). Indeed, it concludes, -There is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident-, and no evidence of any increase in cancer or leukaemia among exposed populations 

Reference: -The Chernobyl Accident: UNSCEAR s assessments of the radiation effects-,  

The World Health Organisation concludes that while a few thousand deaths may be caused over the next 70 years by ChernobylÕs radioactive release, this number -will be indiscernible from the background of overall deaths in the large population group- 

Reference: World Health Organisation, -Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programmes-, 2006 

Without wishing to downplay the tragedy for the victims Ð especially the 300,000 people who were evacuated permanently Ð the explosion has even been good for wildlife, which has thrived in the 30km exclusion zone 

Reference: National Geographic News, April 26, 2006: -Despite mutations, Chernobyl wildlife is thriving- 

One persistent idea is that once construction and uranium mining are taken into account, nuclear is no better than fossil fuels. 

However, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), total life-cycle greenhouse-gas emission per unit of electricity is about 40g CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour, -similar to those for renewable energy sources-(12). 

IPCC report on Mitigation  

It is worth remembering the contribution that nuclear power has already made to offsetting global warming: the world s 442 operating nuclear reactors, which produce 16 per cent of global electricity, save 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year compared to coal, according to the IPCC.  

It is worth remembering the contribution that nuclear power has already made to offsetting global warming: the world s 442 operating nuclear reactors, which produce 16 per cent of global electricity, save 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year compared to coal, according to the IPCC.  

An anti-nuclear report published by the Oxford Research Group in 2007 concluded that an additional 2,500 reactors would need to be built by 2075 to significantly mitigate global warming(19). The reportÕs authors suggested that this was a pipe-dream.  

Oxford Research Group, 2007: Too Hot to Handle: The future of civil nuclear power, p.7  

Are those who care about global warming prepared to reconsider their opposition to nuclear power in this new era?  

An anti-nuclear report published by the Oxford Research Group in 2007 concluded that an additional 2,500 reactors would need to be built by 2075 to significantly mitigate global warming(19). The reportÕs authors suggested that this was a pipe-dream.  

Oxford Research Group, 2007: Too Hot to Handle: The future of civil nuclear power, p.7