(As always, you an read this over at Science Gallery)
The RAW debate “Should Ireland Go Nuclear” on Friday went well, but not exactly how I had expected. There was no talk of Chernobyl and Monju, Three Mile Island or Sellafield. In fact, most of the speakers– if not all– said that we should consider lifting the legislative ban on nuclear generation in Ireland.
And there was very little purist rejection of Nuclear power, probably because the planned electricity interconnector between Ireland and Britain will mean Ireland could essentially be getting a significant chunk of its energy from nuclear plants in the UK.
Instead, the talk focused on the costs associated with Nuclear power versus ‘green’ energy sources like wind and tidal power. One interesting point was that new nuclear power plants often have operational lifespans up to 60 years—more than double the estimated lifespan of some wind generators, according to some of the speakers.
Denis Duff stated that both onshore and offshore wind energy is not competitively priced currently, and by producing ‘green’ energy at a higher cost, we may reduce the entire country’s energy-generation competitiveness, and further damage our economic situation.
Joseph Curtin and Barra Roantree both disagreed that nuclear was a sensible option for Ireland, especially since it would be nearly impossible for any plant to be producing energy in Ireland within 15 years.
The recently launched campaign “The Spirit of Ireland” came up a number of times, especially when Dr. Igor Svetts brought up his suggestion that reservoir-like pump storage could turn intermittent wind energy into base-load hydroelectric energy.
You can read an article Dick Ahlstrom wrote about the pump-storage proposal in December. There’s a thread open over at Boards.ie on the whole pump-storage proposal, but there’s a good deal of yuck-factor reactions to the idea of thee reservoirs, with comments like “The plan is not only to destroy our landscape, one of our irreplaceable natural assets, with massive wind-farms, but to further compromise the natural amenity of our landscape with huge water reservoirs, doubling or trebling the scenery damage.”
In the end, I think a false dichotomy emerged for a bit, where nuclear energy was being considered as an alternative to wind energy and vice-versa. In fact, I think Joseph Curtin had it right when he focused on the possible replacements for end-of lifecycle fossil-fuel plants. What will we be replacing these with, and what are our best options of phasing out fossil fuels? I think it’s likely that many countries will pursue both sides of this debate simultaneously– building nuclear plants alongside wind generators and wave/tidal generators. But most of the panelists seemed to think that since we have a choice, and abundant ‘green’ sources of energy, we should avoid the nuclear route.
We did take an audience vote– just a show of hands– to see who thought Ireland should ‘go nuclear’ and who didn’t. I certainly found it surprising that 2/3 of the audience said they were undecided. Gavin Harte said he thinks we need to keep an open mind, but did raise the point that nuclear power in the past has had promises and bargains associated with it that turn out to be much rosier than reality.
If you liked what the panelists had to say, or want to know more/ get in contact, here’s some background info, twitter usernames, etc on each of them. And if you have any thoughts or comments, post them below.
Gavin Harte
Sustainable Development Consultant, ESD Training, (profile at ‘Personally Speaking’)
Gavin has been a high profile spokesperson on environmental and sustainability issues in Ireland for many years. He has worked as the national director of An Taisce and was the founder of Ireland’s first eco-village in Cloughjordan. He has worked as an educator, a TV presenter and a musician. With RTE he presented the popular travel series “Across the Line”, backpacking overland from Dublin to Australia on a budget of just £25 a day.
Denis Duff
Better Environment with Nuclear Energy
Denis Duff is a mechanical engineer currently working in the power generation sector. He has wide experience of different electrical generation systems. Denis was the lead engineer of an evaluation project on wind energy converters. He also commissioned a solid fuel station and is a manager at a combined cycle gas turbine station.
Joseph Curtin
Senior Researcher, Institute of International and European Affairs, (related blogs, LinkedIn)
Joseph Curtin is Senior Researcher in the areas of climate change and energy policy at the Institute of International and European Affairs.
Barra Roantree (twitter, blog)
Economics and Politics Student, Trinity College Dublin, 2009 Trinity College Scholar
Barra is a second year economics and politics student in Trinity College Dublin and national Chairperson of the Young Greens/Óige Ghlas. He will be opposing the motion that Ireland should go Nuclear highlighting the voodoo economics which the industry is based on and the absence of a long term sustainable solution to nuclear waste.
Fiona O’Malley, TD (website)
Senator & Spokesperson on Energy, Arts and Culture
Fiona O’Malley is the Progressive Democrats Spokesperson on Arts and Culture, and is the Party’s Energy Spokesperson. She is a strong advocate for the development of renewable energy in Ireland and has written extensively on the subject and Launched the party’s Discussion Document on Energy in February 2006.
