E3G

Decoding nuclear nonsense: 7 myths and their antidote

By Tom Burke

The fifth element is the question of increasing dependence on Russian gas. This is simply a scare tactic, with three aspects. First, gas is used mainly to provide heat. Only a quarter of the gas Britain burns is used to produce electricity. Much of that quarter is used to generate electricity at peak times because gas turbines can be switched on and off easily. Nuclear-power stations must be run constantly to be economic so they can only replace a small proportion of the gas we use for electricity generation. Second, most of Britain’s gas now and in the future comes from that deeply unstable country, Norway. Third, Russia is (as has been pointed out by one of the UK’s former ambassadors in Moscow, Rodric Braithwaite) more dependent on Western Europe’s revenues than the other way round.

The sixth element is the question of climate change. New nuclear build can do nothing worthwhile to help with climate change and would divert capital, and more importantly, scarce skills away from investments in the carbon-neutral coal technologies, renewables and energy efficiency that will reduce Britain’s carbon footprint faster and more cheaply than new nuclear build. Even under the most favourable circumstances there is no possibility of any new nuclear electricity being available in Britain before 2020.

As the government points out, Britain will have had to replace most of its nuclear and some of its coal-generating capacity before then. It will have to do that in a carbon-neutral way to meet emissions-reductions targets. If the country has the carbon-neutral technologies to generate electricity before it can possibly have any new nuclear electricity, what does it need the nuclear for?

The seventh element is economics. Look very carefully at any numbers about capital costs or construction times. The nuclear industry has always got these wrong. Frequently cited estimates for the capital cost of a nuclear-power station range from $1,000/kilowatt to just over $2,000/kilowatt hour. The estimated cost of eight reactors currently being constructed in Asia is just over $4,500/kilowatt. The construction time for the much vaunted new reactor in Finland has increased from forty-eight months to sixty-six months since November 2005.

If the myths are dispelled, the proposed consultation might become a serious debate. Stay tuned, and stay alert.