Nuclear

I was Director of Friends of the Earth in the UK at the time of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. I felt at that time that this would finally kill off the nuclear industry – but that has proved to be a vain hope.

The irony, of course, is that it’s the onset of accelerating climate change that has given the industry a new lease of life, based on the somewhat questionable assumption that nuclear power provides very low-carbon electricity.

Post-Fukushima, the Green Movement finds itself even more divided over the idea that nuclear power has a major role to play in the transition to a low-carbon world.

I guess George Monbiot (who thinks it has) and myself (who still thinks it hasn’t) reflect both ends of that divide. For those interested, here are the links to George’s initial challenge to me,  in a Guardian Environment blog on 27th May: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/may/27/why-choose-nuclear-renewable-energy
 

And my reply to him is  found here on this website in the Blog pages, plus a shorter, edited version on The Guardian site:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/jul/26/george-monbiot-renewable-nuclear