nuclear-news

The nuclear lobby from several continents is nonetheless present during the Cop21 negotiations, with a stand in the Solutions Gallery nudging shoulders with oil-producer countries’ stands, and scientific institutes for gas and solar energy. for example.

“……..Cyrille Cormier of NGO Greenpeace France disagrees. He says that compared to renewables, nuclear is far more costly.

“Every megawatt-hour produced by nuclear energy from an EPR reactor costs about 100 euros. The cost of producing the same amount of renewable energy with wind turbines and solar is already less almost everywhere in the world. For example in France, it’s already 70 euros per MW-hour for big solar farms and wind turbines.”

Cormier remarks on Youth Day at the Cop21, that nuclear is a waste burden and financial drain on future generations.

Price is not the only drawback, especially for developing countries. The raw material for nuclear energy, uranium, is in limited supply. Scientists reckon the uranium supply will run out before the end of the next century

While not GHG producing, nuclear waste is highly polluting and radioactive. Disposal is problematic. The nuclear power plant disasters in Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 and in Fukushima in Japan four years ago are shocking examples of the devastating results of nuclear accidents, either human or due to natural catastrophe.

The general call from the organisers and French presidency of the climate-change conference in Paris is for faster solutions to the expanding GHG problem, based on sustainable energies, which as well as being low in C02 emissions, require less investment in money, technology and therefore, time.  http://www.english.rfi.fr/general/20151203-Nuclear-not-so-much-dirty-word-Cop21-it-can-barely-be-heard