In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That's the conviction that inspired Greenpeace's first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
More than 30 years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be an energy source that can help save our planet from another potential disaster: the serious negative impacts of climate change.
Look at it this way: More than 600 coal-fired electric plants in the United States produce 36 percent of U.S. emissions -- or nearly 10 percent of global emissions -- of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power. And these days it can do so safely.
Although I don't want to underestimate the very real dangers of nuclear technology in the hands of rogue states, we cannot simply ban every technology that is dangerous. That was the all-or-nothing mentality at the height of the Cold War, when anything nuclear seemed to spell doom for humanity and the environment. In 1979, Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon produced a frisson of fear with their starring roles in ``The China Syndrome,'' a fictional evocation of nuclear disaster in which a reactor meltdown threatens a city's survival. Less than two weeks after the blockbuster film opened, a reactor-core meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant sent shivers of very real anguish throughout the country.
What nobody noticed at the time, though, was that Three Mile Island was in one sense a success story: The concrete containment structure did what it was designed to do -- prevent large amounts of radiation from escaping into the environment. And although the reactor itself was crippled, there was no injury among nuclear workers or nearby residents. Three Mile Island was the only serious accident in the history of nuclear energy generation in the United States, but it was enough to scare us away from further developing the technology: There hasn't been a nuclear plant ordered up since then.
Today, 103 nuclear reactors are quietly delivering just 20 percent of America's electricity. Eighty percent of people living within 10 miles of these plants approve of them (that's not including nuclear workers). Although I don't live near a nuclear plant, I am now squarely in their camp. I have come to realize that nuclear energy -- along with a stronger focus on renewables, like wind, geothermal and hydroelectric power -- is essential to providing a sustainable supply of electricity.
And I am not alone among seasoned environmental activists in changing my mind on this subject. The pioneering British atmospheric scientist James Lovelock now believes nuclear energy is the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change. Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, says the environmental movement must embrace nuclear energy to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. On occasion, the holders of such opinions have been met with excommunication from the anti-nuclear priesthood: The late British Bishop Hugh Montefiore, founder and director of Friends of the Earth, was forced to resign from the group's board after he wrote a pro-nuclear article in a church newsletter.
There are signs of a new willingness to listen, though, even among the staunchest anti-nuclear campaigners. When I spoke recently to a packed house on the issue of a sustainable energy future, I argued that the only way to reduce fossil-fuel emissions from electrical production is through an aggressive program of renewable-energy sources plus nuclear. A Greenpeace spokesman was first at the mike for the question period, and I expected a tongue-lashing. Instead, he began by saying he agreed with much of what I said -- not the nuclear bit, of course, but there was a clear feeling that all options must be explored.
Here's why: Wind and solar power have their place, but because they are intermittent and unpredictable they simply can't replace large primary plants such as coal, nuclear and hydroelectric. Natural gas, a fossil fuel, is too expensive already, and its price is too volatile to risk building large-scale plants.
California currently has a clear choice when it comes to increasing its base electricity supply. It can continue to build natural gas plants that will rely heavily on costly, imported fuel, much of it from unstable, potentially hostile regions, or it can promote nuclear and renewables, particularly hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal and ground-source heat pumps, all of which can contribute to the power supply without emitting CO2.
Fresno-area proposal
One approach to CO2 emissions reduction is now being promoted by the Fresno Nuclear Energy Group. They are proposing twin 1,600-megawatt reactors, built in Fresno County away from any earthquake risk, and using treated wastewater for cooling. This is a feasible and environmentally supportable proposal that can help California meet its objectives for greenhouse gas emissions.
That's not to say that there aren't real problems -- as well as various myths -- associated with nuclear energy. Each concern deserves careful consideration:
• Nuclear energy is expensive. It is in fact one of the least expensive energy sources. In 2004, the average cost of producing nuclear energy in the United States was less than 2 cents a kilowatt-hour, comparable with coal and hydroelectric. Advances in technology will bring the cost down further in the future.
• Nuclear plants are not safe. The 1986 accident at Chernobyl was a disaster, but it was an accident waiting to happen. This early model of Soviet reactor had no containment vessel, was an inherently bad design and its operators literally blew it up. According to the multi-agency United Nations Chernobyl Forum, 56 deaths can be directly attributed to the accident, most of those from radiation or burns suffered while fighting the fire. But no one has died of a radiation-related accident in the history of the U.S. civilian nuclear-reactor program.
• Nuclear waste will be dangerous for thousands of years. Within 40 years, used fuel has less than one-thousandth of the radioactivity it had when it was removed from the reactor. And it is incorrect to call it waste, because 95 percent of the potential energy is still contained in the used fuel after the first cycle. Now that the United States has removed the ban on recycling used fuel, it will be possible to use that energy and to greatly reduce the amount of waste that needs treatment and disposal. Japan, France, Britain and Russia are all now in the nuclear-fuel-recycling business. The United States will not be far behind.
• Nuclear reactors are vulnerable to terrorist attack. The six-foot-thick reinforced concrete containment vessel protects the contents from the outside as well as the inside. And even if a jumbo jet did crash into a reactor and breach the containment, the reactor would not explode.
• Nuclear fuel can be diverted to make nuclear weapons. This is the most serious issue associated with nuclear energy and the most difficult to address, as the current example of Iran shows. But just because nuclear technology can be put to evil purposes is not sufficient reason to ban its use.
The only practical approach to the issue of nuclear-weapons proliferation is to put it higher on the international agenda and to use diplomacy and, where necessary, force to prevent countries or terrorists from using nuclear materials for destructive ends. And new technologies such as the reprocessing system that has been introduced in Japan (in which the plutonium is never separated from the uranium) can make it much more difficult for terrorists or rogue states to use civilian materials to manufacture weapons.
Coal-fired plants
The 600-plus coal-fired plants emit nearly 2 billion tons of CO2 annually -- the equivalent of the exhaust from about 300 million automobiles. In addition, the Clean Air Council reports that coal plants are responsible for 64 percent of sulfur-dioxide emissions, 26 percent of nitrous oxides and 33 percent of mercury emissions. These pollutants are eroding the health of our environment, producing acid rain, smog, respiratory illness and mercury contamination.
Meanwhile, the 103 nuclear plants operating in the United States effectively avoid the release of 700 million tons of CO2 emissions annually -- the equivalent of the exhaust from more than 100 million automobiles. Imagine if the ratio of coal to nuclear were reversed so that only 20 percent of our electricity was generated from coal and 60 percent from nuclear. This would go a long way toward cleaning the air and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Every responsible environmentalist should support a move in that direction.
PATRICK MOORE, co-founder of Greenpeace, is chairman and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies in Vancouver, British Columbia.
http://www.greenspirit.com/logbook.cfm?msid=150
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
