Writing to the PM about nuclear

Everyone seems to be writing to the Prime Minister about nuclear power at the moment. Jonathan Porritt and three other former heads of Friends of the Earth wrote to him to say that building new nuclear power stations would be a disastrous policy failure. Meanwhile George Monbiot and four pro-nuclear environmentalists sent him a letter to say that nuclear was our only chance to save the human race from climate change.

I just wish the pro-nuclear lot would put as much energy into solutions for reducing consumption like Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) as they do into pumping up nuclear power. George Monbiot has written something like 10 posts on his blog or articles in The Guardian over the last year about why it’s so important to support nuclear, but not one that I can find about energy reduction solutions like TEQs.

In their letter, Monbiot et al say that Porritt et al only think nuclear power is too expensive because they’re against nuclear power. But that's simply bizarre. Even The Economist said last week that nuclear power was too expensive. It is, it always has been and, as far as anyone can make out, it always will be.

Nuclear power is expensive, dangerous, inefficient and gigantist. A nuclear power station is as carbon-intensive as a gas-fired one. The nuclear industry has a history of accidents and cover-ups. There has never been a nuclear power station that has operated without state subsidies. And there is still no solution to the problem of nuclear waste.

Why would we want more of that?