The Green Party has challenged State science and technology agency Forfás to substantiate its claim that nuclear energy should be considered in Ireland.
Issuing a ten-point document illustrating why Ireland does not need to go nuclear, party energy spokesman Eamon Ryan said atomic power generation in Ireland would be "prohibitively expensive".
Estimates of when the world's oil production will peak range from 2012 to 2030, and experts agree that an alternative should be found as a matter of urgency.
Ireland's energy consumption has rocketed in the Celtic Tiger years. In 2002, Ireland ranked third highest among the EU-25 countries in terms of oil consumed per capita as oil consumption doubled compared to 1990.
Last week, Forfás issued a report that said renewable energy sources should be developed to counter the growing problem of dependency on finite fuel supplies and suggested nuclear energy should be considered as a long-term solution.
Mr Ryan said it was remarkable "there was no economic or scientific analysis in the [Forfás] report to back up such a call" and challenged the authors to produce figures to substantiate their contention.
He said there were several grounds on which nuclear energy should be ruled out, not the least of which was economics.
"The large size of nuclear plants within a small electricity grid such as our own, means the cost of reserve power to cover plant breakdowns . . . makes it prohibitively expensive," Mr Ryan said.
He also questioned the Forfás claim that nuclear energy may be needed to provide sufficient electricity to supply public transport in the future.
Mr Ryan said: "We could provide a hundred new Dart systems and still have little problem in meeting the increase in electricity demand through the use of renewable resources."
Fuel-efficient cars would save as much energy as a nuclear power plant would provide, he added.
Green Party leader Trevor Sargent renewables such as wind, wave and tidal energy along with eco-friendly fuels such as bio-mass should form the basis of Irish energy policy.