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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/04/mv-ramana-why-nuclear-power-not-solution-energy-needs>
"You would be forgiven for thinking that the debate on nuclear power is pretty
much settled. Sure, there are still some naysayers, but most reasonable people
have come to realise that in an age of climate crisis, we need low-carbon
nuclear energy – alongside wind and solar power – to help us transition away
from fossil fuels. In 2016, 400 reactors were operating across 31 countries,
with one estimate suggesting roughly the same number in operation in mid-2023,
accounting for 9.2% of global commercial gross electricity generation. But what
if this optimism were in fact wrong, and nuclear power can never live up to its
promise? That is the argument the physicist MV Ramana makes in his new book. He
says nuclear is costly, dangerous and takes too long to scale up. Nuclear, the
work’s title reads, is not the solution.
This wasn’t the book Ramana, a professor at the University of British Columbia,
planned to write. The problems with nuclear are so “obvious”, he wagered, they
do not need to be spelled out. But with the guidance of his editor, he realised
his mistake. Even in the contemporary environmental movement, which emerged
alongside the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, there are converts.
Prominent environmentalists, understandably desperate about the climate crisis,
believe it is rational and reasonable to support nuclear power as part of our
energy mix.
But with a PhD in physics, and a previous book examining why India’s nuclear
programme had not worked and would not work, Ramana is well versed in not just
the moral but the technical and practical arguments against nuclear. He lays
these out in his new work and then looks at what he originally set out to
explore: why, despite the overwhelming evidence against nuclear, governments
and corporations continue to invest in it.
When we speak online, he obligingly takes me through the problems in detail. It
is gone 11pm in Canada, but Ramana, who is enthusiastic and affable, patiently
and carefully explains why he thinks each justification I put to him is wrong."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
