At present Britain gets about 75% of its electricity from power stations burning fossil fuels and producing greenhouse gases, and about 25% from nuclear power stations. Over the next twenty years many of these power stations, both fossil fuel and nuclear, come to the end of their lives. Decisions about how best to provide for Britain's future energy needs must be taken very soon. It is important that these decisions should take into account our need to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions.
Although a national energy policy is the responsibility of the Government there is much that we, both individually and collectively, can and should be doing, at home, at school, at work, in the way we shop, in the way we travel, in the way we spend our holidays, to make this world a better place, for ourselves and all the animals and plants and other living things with which we share it. It is important for each of us to understand that the life-style and other choices each of us makes really can make a difference.
Anyone who thinks that one individual cannot make a difference has never spent the night in a room with a mosquito.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
But to suggest that at this moment in time no other energy policy is needed, that these things by themselves can be sufficient to stop and reverse not only global warming but also all the other ways in which we are polluting and destroying our Planet is to live in cloud-cuckoo land.
I believe very strongly that, on purely environmental grounds, Britain should be building more nuclear power stations. These Pages explain why.
I was teaching my Scouts and students about the dangers of acid rain and raising carbon dioxide levels in the 1960s. The first nuclear power stations were built more than fifty years ago. On purely environmental grounds I have been campaigning for more nuclear power stations ever since. I believe very strongly that, had the initial enthusiasm for nuclear power been maintained, by now most of the World, including China, would be obtaining or planning to obtain most of its energy from nuclear power, and as a result the present rate of global warming would have been much reduced. But today China is planning to build six hundred new coal-fired power stations in the next twenty years.
Almost all of the charities I support are concerned with the environment: you can read about them elsewhere in my Web Site. I was a member of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth almost from their beginnings. Both of these organisations have always been actively campaigning on a wide range of environmental issues, and have achieved a great deal. They have also always campaigned against nuclear power. At the time I joined each of them I made it clear that I did not support their policies on nuclear power, but as at that time there was no realistic possibility that any British government would reintroduce a nuclear power programme this was of no consequence. But now that building more nuclear power stations is back on the political agenda I believe that the continued opposition of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to nuclear energy is misguided and unhelpful, and I very reluctantly decided to stop my financial support for them, and use the money to increase my support for other environmental charities.
These Pages were originally only a part of the Page on nuclear fission, but in view of the current interest in nuclear power I have decided to expand it and make it suitable for a more general readership.
It is essentially non-technical, but there are links to other Pages of my web site, and to other people’s web sites, where more technical information is available.
For the same reasons I have not usually given references although I do have references for everything I say. Those who wish to challenge anything I say are welcome to e-mail me although it might be better to do an internet search to find other, fully referenced, Pages on the same topic.It is intended to be read through in order, but each Section can also be read independently and contains either information on one specific topic or counter-arguments to one specific objection to nuclear power.
In these Pages I am concerned only with environmental issues. All the evidence suggests however that nuclear power is far cheaper than the “green” alternatives, although this is not discussed further.
