Published in the Evening Standard - 25 November 2005

NUCLEAR ENERGY IS GREEN

Former Friends of the Earth policymaker Andrew Neather sees nuclear power as a "gee-whiz" technology sustained by "myths".

I write as an independent environmentalist who turned my back on the industry to pursue green interests 20 years ago but came back round to the benefits of nuclear on the basis of the evidence. When the UK produces 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide a person annually and France, which generates three-quarters of its electricity with nuclear, only 6, you see the imperative of nuclear power.

Nuclear power is safe - of the 350,000 workers who die worldwide each year, only one is in the nuclear industry. Meanwhile 22 people were killed in a Belgian gas explosion last year and there is a constant drip of domestic gas explosions. Inside a power station is probably the safest place to be in the event of a terrrorist attack. The tiny volumes of radioactive waste the industry produces are easy to confine and recycle, compared to billions of tons of fossil fuel emissions dumped directly into the atmosphere every year.

Neather sees wind power as a serious alternative, but windmills only produce electricity 30 per cent of the time and require a conventional energy back-up. A combination of the right renewables, more energy conservation, and nuclear energy for baseload power is needed.

Neather suggests that in the future people will condemn politicians when they realise the "hidden costs" of the nuclear industry. I think that in fact they will actually turn against the Greens who have opposed the one thing which may alleviate the coming energy crisis : clean and safe nuclear energy.

Bruno Comby

President of EFN
Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy
www.ecolo.org