Nuclear energy ‘now an obstacle to delivering net zero’

Nuclear energy ‘now an obstacle to delivering net zero’ – Greenpeace.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sPyp205IRK4%3Fsi%3DY29o2v-tmD2UjGDA

Nuclear energy has been touted as key to the global transition,
but concerns around costs and timescales have generated scepticism.
According to Greenpeace director of policy Doug Parr: “Nuclear power
can’t bridge the gap between anything and anything. It is too slow. It is
too expensive. It is a massive distraction.”

Speaking about the role of
nuclear energy in the UK’s transition, Parr tells Energy Monitor: “It
doesn’t help with the kind of grid system that we need, which is going to
be renewables heavy. I think the UK focus on nuclear power is now an
obstacle to delivering net zero because it is sucking up time, energy and
political bandwidth, which can be spent on more useful things.”

Parr argues that governments should be investing in more immediate solutions. He
points to investment in Sizewell C – the 3.2GW power station set to be
built in the English county of Suffolk – where construction is set to
commence this year. It is likely to take between nine and 12 years to
complete, but delays at Hinkley C (of which Sizewell C will be a close
copy) have stirred doubt.

“We will be putting a lot of money into
something like Sizewell C, when actually we will find that it is a white
elephant by the time it has opened,” he contends. “We will have spent
all that time, energy and effort, which could have been put into improving
our housing stock, improving our grid or improving the ability of electric
vehicles to meet the needs of people through a proper charging network –
things that would actually would deliver this decade, not in 15 years time.
So, we would cut a lot more carbon, we would get something done that is
useful and we wouldn’t have piles of messy radioactive waste that we
still don’t know what to do with.”

Energy Monitor 10th April 2024, https://www.energymonitor.ai/features/nuclear-energy-now-an-obstacle-to-delivering-net-zero-greenpeace/

April 14, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, UK

1 Comment »

The bottom line is this: Nuclear power in any form, SMR, Boiling Water, Pressurize Water or “Fusion” are too expensive, too dangerous and TOTALLY UNNECESSARY FOR OUR ENERGY NEEDS. The market place is already going for photovoltaic and wind. If you still think we need nuclear power or fracked natural gas as a “transition fuel,” until renewable energy is ready, then go to the websites of the Solutions Project or thesolutionsproject.org or the Rocky Mountain Institute or RMI.org. Look at the plans from the Solutions Project for all 50 of the United States and now over 146 countries all across the globe. We have the technology and the natural resources to do this now. We will not “starve and freeze in the dark,” nor “wreck our economy in the process of transitioning to a renewable energy economy.” What we need is an “Apollo Moon Landing Mission Project.” All we lack is the political will because our elected leaders votes have been bought by the profit addicted, dying nuclear industry & the centralized for profit electric utility industries.

Comment by paulrodenlearning | April 14, 2024 | Reply