Nuclear Power - youlikewelike

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As the debate over climate change continues, nuclear power is increasingly being pitched by the government and nuclear industry as being the clean, safe alternative to emissions-heavy fossil fuel. Controversial, powerful (literally), potentially deadly, but, on the verge of the new reactor building programme, is nuclear really all that it’s being cracked up to be?

The Nuclear Industry Association (NIAUK) is the public face of the British nuclear industry, which is worth an estimated £10 billion. Since decommissioning of the UK’s aged reactors was announced, funds have been transferred to a quasi-government agency, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

The legal status of the UK nuclear industry (which encompasses everything from the power stations to disposal companies) has always been neither one thing nor the other for years. On the one hand it’s a private concern, on the other a government business, and right now business is lucrative.

Recently, the government has changed its position from a long held public ‘wait-and-see’ posture to showing open support. Alistair Darling, the then Secretary of State for Industry said in May 07, “If nuclear is excluded there is every chance that its place would be taken by gas or coal generation, which of course emits carbon."

Announcing a second public consultation on the nuclear power issue, Downing Street then issued a statement saying, “The government has decided in principle that businesses should be able to build new nuclear power stations.”

Pretty firm words from the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Climate change will inevitably frame the debate moving forward. NIAUK hold that fossil fuel powered stations will not be able to continue operating in the face of more stringent emissions restrictions. In addition, the Green lobby continue to question whether nuclear power is the only option open in the growing environmental debate. Renewable fuels currently make up just over 4.2% of the UK’s energy. According to NIAUK, these renewable sources “cannot grow fast enough to replace the electricity shortfall, nor can they independently ensure stability.”

The nuclear industry, which currently produces 20% of Great Britain’s electricity needs, believes it is best equipped to step in and make up the difference, a point that Ben Aycliffe, senior campaigner with Greenpeace is keen to discuss. “Unlike nuclear, which has seen only one new reactor built in Western Europe since the early 1990s, the renewable industry is burgeoning.”

Aycliffe points to an estimate of Ernst and Young, which claims that the renewable industry is growing by 30% a year. “The UK has some of the best potential for renewable energy anywhere in the world, and we should be tapping into this, not locking ourselves into a dirty, expensive and grossly inefficient nuclear system,” continues Aycliffe. “With a decentralised energy system based on renewable technologies, we could double the efficiency of our power stations, slash our carbon emissions and reduce our reliance on foreign gas.”

It isn’t just climate change concerns which are shaping the current nuclear debate. Nuclear power stations were never built as permanent structures that could be left to their own devices. Rather, reactors were established with a definite lifespan due to end in the next two decades (11 of the UK’s 12 nuclear reactors will not be working in 20 years, for example). As a result, investment – running into hundreds of millions of pounds – is now needed to replace this generating capacity (losses at Sellafield have now hit £112 million, for example), and thus the government’s recent push to energise the nuclear debate.

This is not however an excuse to plough more money into the British nuclear reactor programme, according to Aycliffe, but a warning of what could be about to happen.

“Replacing our entire existing fleet of nuclear power stations will cost us billions and leave a legacy of radioactive waste for many hundreds of thousands of years while reducing our carbon emissions by a mere 4% sometime after 2024. Our creaking nuclear reactors are coming to the end of their lives, but this gives us an unparalleled opportunity to say goodbye to nuclear and revolutionise the way we produce, distribute and use clean energy.”

And so it seems the nuclear industry will continue to be dogged by concerns and controversies, just as it has always been.